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A POLITICAL HISTORY 
OF SLAVERY 

Being an Account of the Slavery Controversy from the 

Earliest Agitations in the Eighteenth Century to the 

Close of the Reconstruction Period in America 



BY 



WILLIAM HENRY SMITH 

Author of "The St. Clair Papers," 
" Charles Hammond," etc. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

WHITELAW REID 



In Two Volumes 
II 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 
ttbc "ftnichcrbocl^er iprces 

1903 



THE LiBRA 
CONGh 


RYOF i 
ESS, 


Two Copies Received 

MAY 19 1903 

Cop,i.eht Entry 
CLASS^ ^ XXc. No. 


ii> b ^ 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1903 

BY 

DELAVAN SMITH 



Published, March, 1903 






^\ 



Ubc ftnfcftccftoclicc iprcsa, Hew l!?ocIi 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

The Outbreak of the War i 

CHAPTER II 
Suspension of Habeas Corpus — The First Republican 
Congress 28 

CHAPTER III 
The Trent Affair — General Fremont and Emancipa- 
tion — Ways and Means 51 

CHAPTER IV 

Emancipation 82 

CHAPTER V 

The Peace Democrats — Knights of the Golden Circle 
— West Virginia a State ...... loi 

CHAPTER VI 

The Treason of Vallandigham — Neutrals — Offer of 

Amnesty .127 

CHAPTER VII 
The Thirteenth Amendment — The Beginnings of Re- 
construction 144 



iv Contents 

CHAPTER VIII 

PAGE 

Military Discouragements — The Chicago Convention 

OF 1864 — The Downfall of the Confederacy . . 180 

CHAPTER IX 

Andrew Johnson's Plans for Reconstruction — The 

Fourteenth Amendment 231 

CHAPTER X 

The South Rejects the Fourteenth Amendment — The 

Reconstruction Act 279 

CHAPTER XI 

The Impeachment of President Johnson — The Election 

of 1868 330 

CHAPTER XII 

The Fifteenth Amendment — The South Cooperates in 

Reconstruction 370 

CHAPTER XIII 
The Failure of Reconstruction — By John J. Halsey . 409 

Index 437 




A POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY 



A POLITICAL HISTORY OF 
SLAVERY 



CHAPTER I 

THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR 

IN the history of nations weak rulers are treated with scant 
respect. They become the dupes of knaves, the instru- 
ments of oppression ; they imperil governments and invite 
disorders to enter in; they are the real enemies to human 
progress. In times of danger, of revolution, they constantly 
seek to shift their burdens upon the shoulders of others, while 
they obstruct the administration of law. They are impotent 
to resolve ; they seek escape through delay ; and thus invite 
defeat for themselves and destruction for their country. The 
quaint conceit applied to man in the Elizabethan age — "the 
wings of man's life are plumed with the feathers of death" — 
to mark the importance of quick resolve and vigorous execu- 
tion, is equally applicable to governments. When Mr. Bu- 
chanan was brought face to face with men resolute in purpose 
to disrupt the Union and overthrow the government, he con- 
strued the fundamental law to be as impotent as he was in fact 
as the executive. He had himself played with secession 
when he thought it an improbability; he had armed these men 
with an excuse in justification years before, when, his own 



2 A Political History of Slavery 

success being foreshadowed, in speaking to the congratulations 
of his neighbors in 1856, he said that if the result had been dif- 
ferent "we should have been precipitated into the yawning 
gulf of dissolution." The verdict of 1856 had been reversed 
in i860, and the country was precipitated into the yawning 
gulf of dissolution. The four years of his administration had 
not restored harmony, had indeed been years of preparation 
for the accomplishment of revolution. He had been as clay in 
the hands of the plotters. He was their chosen instrument- 
chosen because he was incapable. He pleaded, they laughed 
him to scorn, they humiliated him: he remonstrated, they 
treated him with contempt.' 

Imagine Andrew Jackson the executive head of the govern- 
ment in 1 860-1. Would members of Congress engaged in 
the work of disunion have been welcome at the White House? 
Would they have bullied him? Would members of his Cabi- 
net have plotted for the overthrow of the government with 
impunity, and finally have been permitted to resign to give a 
more active support to the work of destruction? Would forts 
have been left without garrisons, and public property unse- 
cured? It is inconceivable. What Jackson was Buchanan was 
not. What Jackson would have done Buchanan omitted or 
was incapable of doing.' He transferred to his successor a 
government impaired, a country dismembered, over which 
were discernible the dire portents of civil war. 

Mr. Lincoln left his home on the nth of February for 

' The President sent Caleb Gushing to confer with Governor Pickens of South 
Carolina and to plead with him. The Governor replied that there was no hope 
for the Union, and that " so far as I was concerned I intended to maintain the 
separate independence of South Carolina, and from this purpose neither tempta- 
tion nor danger should for a moment deter me." 

'■^ What General Jackson would have done under the circumstances of i860 may 
be inferred from the language of a remarkable letter written by him May i, 1833, 
to the Rev. Andrew J. Crawford, a clergyman in a slaveholding State. The 
letter came to the hand of Mr. Sumner, who made it public December 10, i860 : 

"Washington, May i, 1833. 

" My Dear Sir : . . . I have had a laborious task here, but nullification 
is dead ; and its actors and courtiers will only be remembered by the people to be 
execrated for their wicked designs to sever and destroy the only good government 



The Inauguration of Lincoln 3 

Washington. His journey, which included public receptions 
in the cities of Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, 
Pittsburg, Buffalo, Albany, New York, Trenton, Philadelphia 
and Harrisburg, was of the greatest importance to the incom- 
ing administration at this period of doubt and anxiety. Mr. 
Lincoln was without experience in the administration of public 
affairs, and many distrusted his ability to deal with questions 
of greater magnitude than had ever confronted the American 
people. These embraced the opportunity to see him, to 
study his face, to hear his voice, to resolve their doubts if pos- 
sible in his presence. The ordeal was severe, but Mr. Lincoln 
bore it with such inspiring calmness, with such natural dignity, 
with such wonderful tact, as to banish all distrust and leave 
confidence in its place. During these twelve days of trial he 
did not utter a word which he could wish to recall, he did not 
fail to leave the impression that would prove most serviceable. 
The most gifted statesman of the world, with all of the culture 
and self-command derivable from long experience in affairs, 
would probably have failed where Abraham Lincoln succeeded 
without apparent effort. 

There was an apprehension in the West that peril would at- 
tend the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. Nothing, of course, 
was known here of the treasonable preparations at Baltimore, 
but threats of violence were rife, and created a feeling of un- 
easiness. Many young men — perhaps two or three hundred — 
quietly left Cincinnati and other Western cities for Washing- 
ton, to tender their services to General Scott. The episode of 
the night ride through Baltimore, now familiar to all, only 

on the globe, and that prosperity and happiness we enjoy over every other portion 
of the world. Haman's gallows ought to be the fate of all such ambitious men, 
who would involve their country in a civil war, and all the evils in its train, that 
they might reign and ride on its whirlwinds and direct the storm. The free peo- 
ple of these United States have spoken, and consigned these wicked demagogues 
to their proper doom. Take care of your nullifiers, you have them among you ; 
let them meet with the indignant frowns of every man who loves his country. 
The tariff, it is noio known, was a mere pretext, and disunion and a Southern con- 
federacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro or slavery question. . . . 

" Andrew Jackson." 



4 A Political History of Slavery 

increased the tension. When Mr. Lincoln had taken the oath 
of office and had been duly installed in the executive mansion, 
there was a grateful sense of relief throughout the country. 
The scene was made familiar to all by the press— the courteous 
attentions of Mr. Buchanan, whose day of freedom had at last 
come; the administering of the oath by Chief Justice Taney 
in the presence of Mr. Douglas, the famous political rival of 
the new President, and of Senators who had already elected to 
unite their fortunes with Jefferson Davis, president of a new 
confederacy. After all these years, after the happy restoration 
of the Union without any distinctive sectional interest to be 
the sport of ambitious men, one's thoughts turn to Douglas 
rather than to Lincoln, the central figure — to Douglas, the un- 
equalled party leader, the brilliant debater, the aspiring poli- 
tician. What were his reflections on that occasion? Did he 
forgive the ingratitude and personal animosity of the retiring 
President? Was he free from any sense of envy when he con- 
gratulated the incoming President? The one execrated by his 
fellow citizens and longing to be at home in safe retirement; 
the other taking up a burden m.ore grievous than had fallen to 
the lot of any man since the days of William the Silent : would 
he have changed places with either? Looking back over the 
events of 1854, his personal act opening a new Pandora's box, 
his countrymen now in hostile array, the future threatening, 
but impenetrable, he might have repeated to himself the 
words of Byron : 

The thorns which I have reaped are of the tree 

I planted ; they have torn me and I bleed. 

I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed. 

The receptions, the office-seeking and the ingenious specu- 
lations as to influences and policies by the newspaper corre- 
spondents — the accompaniments of every change in executive 
control — were not lacking in the beginning of the first Repub- 
lican administration, but these had their brief hour and do not 
concern us. The conditions which confronted Mr. Lincoln, 
the steps which he took to save the Union, alone are important. 



The Inauguration of Lincoln 5 

Mr. Seward, early chosen for the Department of State, had 
been in a delicate and trying position during the closing session 
of the Thirty-sixth Congress. His every movement was 
watched ; his words were studied to detect a trace of the policy 
of the incoming administration. Appealed to on every hand 
to say something to stay the threatened disruption, he finally 
addressed the Senate January I2th, on "The State of the 
Union." The speech was eloquent, and during the delivery 
of portions of it Senators were in tears. The value of the 
Union was shown to be inestimable; its preservation, an obli- 
gation resting upon all of the American people — a people hav- 
ing practically only one language, one religion, one system of 
government, and manners and customs common to all. Dis- 
solution meant perpetual civil war. All questions of difference 
ought to be submitted to the ballot, and the decision cheer- 
fully acquiesced in. He believed that calmness, coolness and 
resolution, elements of American character which had been 
temporarily displaced, were reappearing, and that, soon enough 
for safety, it would be seen that sedition and violence were 
only local and temporary, and that loyalty and affection to the 
Union were the natural sentiments of the whole country. He 
suggested, rather than proposed, concessions as remedies, but 
evidently thought that after time had been given for reflection 
a convention of the States would succeed in restoring a state 
of peace and concord. Later developments did not lessen Mr. 
Seward's optimism. His policy was to gain time for the new 
administration to organize, and for the frenzy of passion to 
subside.' 

The tone of Mr. Lincoln's inaugural was not unlike that of 
Mr. Seward's speech. He disclaimed on behalf of himself and 
of the majority any purpose to interfere with the institution of 
slavery in the States cherishing it, or doing any act except in 
strict conformity to the Constitution and the laws of the land. 
Evidently he thought that the Southern people, disabused of 
their apprehension, would take time to think calmly and well 
upon the whole subject, and that deliberation would surely 

' Seward at Washington, vol. ii., p. 497. 



6 A Political History of Slavery 

stay disunion. Dwelling upon the benefits of the Union, 
which was older than the Constitution, he was led by a logical 
process of reasoning to speak of the practical difficulties in the 
way of the American people living under two distinct govern- 
ments. "Physically speaking," said he, "we cannot separate. 
We cannot remove our respective sections from each other, 
nor build an impassable wall between them." The different 
parts of the country must remain face to face, and intercourse, 
either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. "Is 
it possible then, to make that intercourse more advantageous 
or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens 
make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties 
be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can 
among friends? " No other had presented this view so forcibly 
before. Consideration was given to differences, and their set- 
tlement referred to a convention of States, a mode distinctly 
constitutional. 

The secession dogma that the Union was a league of States 
which might be dissolved at any time by a part was success- 
fully controverted. It was Mr. Lincoln's opinion that the 
Union is perpetual. "If the United States be not a govern- 
ment proper, but an association of States in the nature of con- 
tract merely, can it as a contract be peaceably unmade by less 
than all the parties who made it? " Clearly not. "No State 
upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union ; 
that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void; 
and that acts of violence, within any State or States, against 
the authority of the United States, are insurrectionary or rev- 
olutionary, according to circumstances." Considering the 
Union unbroken, Mr. Lincoln declared his purpose to execute 
the laws faithfully in all the States. In doing this there need 
be no bloodshed or violence, and there should be none unless 
it was forced upon the national authority. The duty of the 
President was to hold, occupy, possess the property and places 
belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and 
imposts ; but beyond what might be necessary for these objects, 
there would be no invasion, no using of force against or among 



The Border States 7 

the people anywhere. Thus there was a national citizenship 
with distinct obligations as well as a State citizenship. 

At Montgomery was a government founded upon a different 
theory, exercising control over a number of States, with the 
apparent consent of their citizens. Thus two governments, 
maintaining antagonistic principles, stood face to face, and 
collision was inevitable. At this time the Montgomery gov- 
ernment represented only one-fourth of the free population of 
the slave States, but two-thirds of the entire slave property. 
Could the remaining slave States be induced to join? Dela- 
ware had already decided to remain in the Union. Governor 
Hicks of Maryland was resisting all revolutionary attempts. 
Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri showed Union 
majorities on the popular vote. Kentucky was held in a con- 
dition of neutrality, but the strength of the Unionists in the 
Legislature was sufficient to defeat the intrigues of the seces- 
sionists. Violence and intimidation and intolerance might 
work a change in some of these, but for the present the laws 
of the United States were enforced within their Hmits. 

It was Mr. Lincoln's aim to influence these States finally to 
reject secession, and to become a power in the restoration of 
the Union. He wished to appoint some one of distinction in 
North Carolina or Virginia a member of his Cabinet, but all 
offers were rejected. His Cabinet as finally constituted in- 
cluded representatives from two border States. On the 5th of 
March his nominations were confirmed by the Senate, as fol- 
lows: William H. Seward of New York, Secretary of State; 
Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury ; Simon 
Cameron of Pennsylvania, Secretary of War ; Gideon Welles 
of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy; Edward Bates of Mis- 
souri, Attorney-General; Montgomery Blair of Maryland,- 
Postmaster-General ; Caleb B. Smith of Indiana, Secretary of 
the Interior. These selections fairly represented the Whig and 
Democratic elements out of which the Republican party had 
been formed. The selection of Mr. Chase was of vast import- 
ance, as upon the successful administration of the finances the 
fate of the Republic depended in a large degree. If war 



8 A Political History of Slavery 

followed it could not be carried on without an ample supply of 
money. The contentment of the people, the first requisite in 
the support of a government in time of revolution, could be 
secured only by a wise regard to all business interests, which 
were so intimately connected with the Treasury Department. 
The purity of Mr. Chase's character and his administrative abil- 
ity were universally recognized, and his selection secured the 
confidence of the business and moneyed men of the country.' 
It also gratified the more radical Republicans represented by 
Mr. Sumner and the more moderate class of Democratic 
origin represented by Judge Trumbull. During the early 
stages of agitation these had stood against all compromises — 
"Inauguration first, adjustment afterwards," said they. 

Mr. Chase, in the Peace Congress, referring to the execution 
of the fugitive act as a real but not insuperable difficulty, sug- 
gested that provision might be made for non-performance. 
The right of reclamation being established, "instead of a judg- 
ment for rendition, let there be a judgment for compensation, 
determined by the true value of the services and by the same 
judgment assure freedom to the fugitive. The cost to the 
national Treasury would be as nothing in comparison with the 
evils of discord and strife." This would have met with gen- 
eral acceptance. The North had passed through Congress and 
caused to be transmitted to the States an amendment to the 
Constitution, numbered the Thirteenth, which if properly 
ratified would have precluded forever any action of Congress 
adverse to the perpetuation of slavery in States cherishing it. 
The North had also passed through the House the conciliatory 
resolutions reported by Mr. Corwin, and had shown a willing- 
ness in the organization of nev/ territories to omit all reference 
to slavery, and to leave the South in full possession of all the 
rights accruing to her from the federal Constitution, as ex- 
pounded in the Dred Scott decision.* Thus had the North 
shown a disposition entirely friendly and conciliatory. 

' Mr. Chase had been an active director of the Lafayette Bank of Cincinnati 
for ten years, and the solicitor of the bank for nearly the same period of time. 
* Greeley's The Afnerican Conflict, vol. i., p. 405. 



The Border States 9 

What had the South done in return? Nothing of a fraternal 
nature. Her attitude was that of requiring the acceptance with- 
out qualification of the Southern — or Calhoun — theory of the 
powers of the Constitution, which held the Union to be a mere 
alliance of sovereign States from which any State might with- 
draw at will.' The effect was expressed in the inaugural ad- 
dress of Jefferson Davis when he said that antagonisms would 
and should result in separation. Engagements undertaken 
with a reservation would not be likely to insure a stable gov- 
ernment, and security in established law and order is the first 
requisite for the peace and happiness of a people. The South 
— the South represented in the Montgomery government — had 
also, even before States had passed ordinances of separation, 
seized forts, custom-houses, revenue cutters, arsenals and 
other property belonging to the general government; had, in 
a word, expelled the federal authority from those States, 
without the knowledge or consent of the general government 
— thus assuming from the start a hostile attitude. 

The appointment of Charles Francis Adams as Minister to 
England, William L. Dayton to France, Carl Schurz to Spain 
and Thomas Corwin to Mexico showed the solicitude felt by 
the President and the Secretary of State as to our foreign re- 
lations. 

What should be the policy of the government as to the forts 
was the most embarrassing question that confronted Mr, Lin- 
coln on the 4th of March. Of all of the expensive structures 
guarding the Southern coasts there remained to the govern- 
ment of the United States Fortress Monroe, the forts on the 
Keys, Fort Pickens at Pensacola and Fort Sumter in Charles- 
ton harbor. The Star of the West, sent in January to carry 
supplies to the last, had been fired upon and compelled to 
withdraw. Should an attempt be made by the new adminis- 
tration to send relief to it, or should Major Anderson and his 
force be withdrawn? The policy of the Buchanan administra- 
tion had left these forts ill supplied and guarded, while the 

' And yet the powers of the States never embraced the requisites of nationality : 
not one had ever been recognized as a nation. 



lo A Political History of Slavery 

military aggressions of South Carolina and Florida rendered 
their situation daily more and more precarious. Formidable 
batteries had been erected on land so as to command the ap- 
proaches to Sumter and Pickens and to threaten their reduction. 
General Scott advised their evacuation as a necessary result of 
the situation. It was estimated that to relieve Fort Sumter 
would require ships and an army of twenty thousand men. 
The ships of the navy were dispersed in foreign waters; there 
was no military force available. The garrison of Fort Sumter 
had provisions for a month perhaps, and if not relieved soon 
would be compelled to surrender to their fellow countrymen 
who confronted them on every side as armed foes. 

The commissioners appointed by the Montgomery govern- 
ment during the last fortnight of Mr. Buchanan's administra- 
tion to negotiate for the surrender of the forts in the South 
yet remaining to the federal government, had not been re- 
ceived by Secretary Seward, but no whit discouraged they 
solicited the good offices of Justice John A. Campbell, who 
was about to resign from the Supreme Bench and return home 
to Alabama to share the fortunes of his State. Mr. Campbell 
was not friendly to the secession movement, but he entered 
'upon negotiation with the ardent hope that he and Mr. Sew- 
ard, whose influence with the administration was believed to 
be paramount, might be able to agree on a policy that, in the 
expressive language sometimes used to beguile the American 
Indian, should keep the chain of friendship bright. It was 
known that Mr. Seward was for peace, and when in perfect 
good faith he confided to Mr. Campbell the information that 
Major Anderson and his little band would be withdrawn from 
Fort Sumter and that at all events supplies would not be sent 
forward without previous notice given to the Governor of 
South Carolina, the authorities at Montgomery anticipated a 
peaceful termination of their enterprise. They were disap- 
pointed, and affected to have been deceived. In his narrative 
Jefferson Davis refers to these diplomatic transactions in bit- 
ter words : "How this effort [at negotiation] was received, how 
the commissioners were kept waiting, and while fair promises 



The Border States 1 1 

were held to the ear how military preparations were pushed 
forward for the unconstitutional, criminal purpose of coercing 
States, let the shameful record of the transaction attest." ' 

The record shows that the President and the Secretary of 
State hoped for peace ardently, planned for it, and strove for 
it in all ways consistent with their constitutional obligations, 
pursuing their purpose with such persistence as to threaten the 
alienation of their political friends. The Cabinet was sharply 
divided as to policy. Montgomery Blair, a Jacksonian, would 
reinforce the forts and enforce the laws aggressively. The 
President and the Secretary of State shared in the belief that 
the avoidance of irritating acts as to Sumter and the display 
of an amicable spirit towards the border States would hold 
them to the Union. To George W. Summers of Virginia 
was tendered a seat on the Supreme Bench of the United 
States, but Mr. Summers was coy, and Virginia was at the 
mercy of the political influences which had controlled her des- 
tiny for fifty years. New civil officers were appointed for Key 
West to assist Judge Marvin, the loyal judge of the District 
Court, and the force in Fort Pickens was increased to eleven 
hundred men, soldiers and laborers, thus making secure the 
finest port and naval station in the South. Finally after due 
deliberation the President decided to attempt to convey sup- 
plies to Major Anderson. Captain Fox was commissioned to 
execute the order. Meanwhile, in faithful observance of the 
promise given, a special messenger was sent to notify Gover- 
nor Pickens of the government's decision. The responsibility 
of peace or war was placed upon Jefferson Davis and his Cabi- 
net. All the while they had been erecting hostile batteries 
and arming troops they talked of peace and besought the 
border States to help them keep it by renouncing their al- 
legiance to the federal government, which suggested as an 
apt commentary the words of Tybalt— "What, drawn and talk 
of peace ! " 

"We are prepared for the dangers of peace, or the dangers 
of war," said Jefferson Davis, at this period. What were the 

1 Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, vol. i., p. 247. 



12 A Political History of Slavery 

dangers of peace? A return of States to the Union, a restora- 
tion of cordial relations between the people of the sections 
and an abandonment of the doctrine of secession. There were 
those who sincerely wanted peace regardless of the fate of po- 
litical theories. But in times of revolution the voice of the 
man who wears a bold countenance bears down the wise coun- 
sels of the messenger of peace. One of these fiery spirits, ad- 
dressing the people of Charleston, said: "Do not distrust 
Viro-inia. I will tell you, gentlemen, what will put her in the 
Southern confederation in less than an hour by Shrewsbury 
clock — strike a blow. The very moment that blood is shed, 
old Virginia will make common cause with her sisters at the 
South." ' And about the same time, in the ofifice of the Sec- 
retary of War at Montgomery, another of the same class 
warned the secretary in these words: "Sir, unless you sprinkle 
blood in the face of the people of Alabama they will be back 
in the old Union in less than ten days." ' 

Would the North resent a blow? Would the thrifty Yan- 
kees, would the Democrats of New York and the Northwest 
permit a war to be prosecuted for the Union? There were 
Southern leaders who believed that if Mr. Lincoln attempted 
coercion half the North would refuse support and he would be 
compelled to resign. Mr. Lincoln was anxiously pondering 
the chances. Mr. Douglas's course in the Senate during the 
first days of the special session caused embarrassment and no 
little anxiety. His criticism that the administration had no 
fixed policy, and his persistency in attempting to force it to 
consent to the abandonment of the public property in the 
Southern States, were calculated to mislead the people into 
a belief that it was possible to recall to duty peaceably the 
States that had already seceded, by yielding to their demands. 
His irritating speeches finally provoked a rebuke from Mr. 
Wilson, unusually animated and severe, which served a good 
purpose. Mr. Douglas had a larger personal following than 

' Charleston Mercury, April nth. The speech was by Roger A. Pryor of Vir- 
ginia. 

* McPherson's /^zj/^rj, p. 113. 



Attack on Fort Sumter 13 

any other party leader of the day. His friends believed in 
him, adored him, and followed wherever he led, confidently, 
unhesitatingly. If he had taken ground in opposition to the 
poHcy of considering the seceded States as still within the 
Union and amenable to the laws of the federal government 
the result would have been serious, perhaps disastrous. When 
the time came for decision his loyalty to country rose superior 
to party. It was a decision that carried great strength to the 
administration, and that for a time practically obliterated party 
distinctions. 

The character of the people of the North was better under- 
stood by Robert Toombs than by his chief, and in a Cabinet 
meeting at Montgomery he gave his counsel against an assault 
upon Fort Sumter. "Mr. President," said he, "at this time 
it is suicide, murder, and will lose us every friend at the North. 
You will wantonly strike a hornets' nest which extends from 
mountains to ocean, and legions, now quiet, will swarm out 
and sting us to death. It is unnecessary; it puts us in the 
wrong; it is fatal."' The hot spirits triumphed. The de- 
cision was war. Instructed by the confederate Secretary of 
War, General Beauregard on the nth of April demanded the 
immediate evacuation of Fort Sumter. As Major Anderson 
refused to comply, early on the morning of the following day 
the first hostile gun of the Civil War was fired from the how- 
itzer battery on James Island. The defence was a gallant but 
hopeless one, and after thirty-six hours, the quarters being 
burnt, the main gates destroyed by fire, the walls seriously in- 
jured and the magazine surrounded by flames. Major Ander- 
son accepted the terms of evacuation offered by General 
Beauregard and marched out on Sunday the 14th, "with 
colors flying and drums beating, and saluting the flag of the 
Union with fifty guns." ^ 

The effect was what General Toombs had predicted. The 
grave and quiet North was instantly transformed into a scene 
of activity and wild excitement, which assumed the character 

■ Robert Toombs, Statesman, etc. By Pleasant A. Stoval, p. 226. 

- National Intelligencer , April 20th. Despatch from Major Anderson. 



14 A Political History of Slavery 

of patriotic enthusiasm when the President's call for seventy- 
five thousand three-months' men, followed upon the heels of 
the announcement of the evacuation. The great cities, every 
town and village and country district sent words of cheer and 
encouragement to the administration, while before all others 
Massachusetts despatched a regiment to protect the capital. 
Ten days after Sumter had fallen a monster mass meeting was 
held in Union Square, New York, which, whether as respects 
numbers in attendance or influence on the destiny of the 
country, was the most remarkable and important gathering of 
the people ever held in America. General Dix, Daniel S. 
Dickinson and other conspicuous Democrats set such an ex- 
ample of loyalty as will prove an inspiration for all time. The 
meeting, said Edwin M. Stanton, delighted, "has become a 
national epoch; for it was a manifestation of patriotic feeling 
beyond any example in history." And he adds: "The up- 
rising of the people of the United States to maintain their 
government and crush rebellion has been so grand, so mighty 
in every element, that I feel it a blessing to be alive and 
witness it." 

The guns in Charleston harbor roused into activity Stephen 
A. Douglas. It was in the city of Charleston that the Demo- 
cratic party had been disrupted to prevent his nomination, and 
the attack on the American flag was but another act in the 
general movement of destruction following the loss of political 
power. Leaving Washington for home in the latter part of 
April, he spoke to great crowds of anxious people at different 
points, advising all to forget party differences and to support 
the government. "Every man must be on the side of the 
United States or against it," said he. "There can be no 
neutrals in this war." He made direct for the capital of 
his own State, where his own followers in the Legislature 
were causing anxiety to the State authorities by their atti- 
tude. The State Senate when organized contained twelve 
Democrats to thirteen Republicans, but two of the latter had 
been appointed to office by Mr. Lincoln. The Democrats 
were thus left in the majority, and they gave no indication of 



Attack on Fort Sumter 15 

what they would do. Senator Blodgett was pressing war ap- 
propriations, but the Democrats delayed action. He invited 
them to his room for consultation, but they were dumb on 
the vital issue. All were expectant of decisive action when 
Mr. Douglas should arrive, and all without distinction of 
party went to the station to greet him. He invited the Demo- 
cratic members of the Legislature to meet him at his hotel, and 
when he had them by themselves he flamed out at them indig- 
nantly for their lack of appreciation of their responsibilities. 
Were the Republicans the only patriots, and were they to 
sweep the country before them? It was the duty of Demo- 
crats to stand by their country and to lead in its support. The 
scolding worked a revolution, and the following day a Demo- 
crat moved to proceed with the appropriation bill and hence- 
forth there was no lack of zeal.' Mr. Douglas, on invitation, 
addressed the Legislature in a speech of great power, and then 
proceeding homeward spoke at Chicago for the last time, May 
1st. On the 3d of June he died at the early age of forty-eight 
years, universally lamented. These last words to the public 
have a breadth of patriotism worthy of the noblest statesman- 
ship, and they are pertinent in every time of stress : 

Whoever is not prepared to sacrifice party organizations and plat- 
forms on the altar of his country does not deserve the support and 
countenance of honest people. How are we to overcome partisan 
antipathies in the minds of men of all parties so as to present a 
united front in support of our country? We must cease discussing 
party issues, make no allusions to old party tests, have no crimina- 
tions and recriminations, indulge in no taunts one against the others 
as to who has been the cause of these troubles. 

When we shall have rescued the government and country from its 
perils, and seen its flag floating in triumph over every inch of Ameri. 
can soil, it will then be time enough to inquire as to who and what 
has brought these troubles upon us. When we shall have a country 
and a government for our children to live in peace and happi- 
ness, it will be time for each of us to return to our party banners 

' MS. Conversations with Hon. Henry W. Blodgett. 



1 6 A Political History of Slavery 

according to our own convictions of right and duty. Let him be 
marked as no true patriot who will not abandon all such issues in 
times like these. 

But there was not lacking a covert opposition inspired by 
party feeling, or by a secret sympathy with rebellion calculated 
to embarrass the administration. The call for seventy-five 
thousand men was criticised as an unnecessary display of 
power. For what purpose were they to be employed? To 
protect the capital? A few thousand would sui^ce for that 
purpose. For the subjugation of the South? That was pre- 
posterous, for no such subjugation was possible by any num- 
ber of troops. The assembling of such formidable numbers 
was a menace to the liberty of the citizen. We shall find this 
discordant note continued through to the end. 

The means for national defence had to be created — an army, 
a navy and munitions. More than all, the Treasury, which 
since 1857 had been in a state of bankruptcy, had to be re- 
established. The first step had been taken by the Thirty- 
sixth Congress in its closing days, in passing what is known as 
the Morrill tariff. It had not yet taken effect and its possi- 
bilities were unknown, nor had any well-defined financial 
policy been adopted to restore the national credit, which, 
during the Buchanan administration was so low that money 
could be procured to carry on the operations of the govern- 
ment only by paying double rates of interest. Yet the United 
States possessed in its Constitution, — in the interpretation 
which the Unionists gave to it, — in the orderly and industrious 
character of the people, the soundest basis for public credit 
that a nation could have. The Southern confederacy pre- 
sented a striking contrast to this. Admitting the right of 
secession, it offered only a shifting and uncertain basis of politi- 
cal organization, whose guarantees in the money markets of 
the world were certain to be held cheap. It had but a single 
crop to build upon and that could not supply what the funda- 
mental law lacked — stability. Then the greatest growth had 
been in the Northern section. The rate of increase in popula- 



North and South Contrasted 17 

tion in the Southern section in the decade ending June, 1840, 
was twenty-five per cent., and in the Northern section about 
thirty-nine per cent. In the decade ending in 1850 it was 
nearly thirty-two per cent, in the South, and nearly forty per 
cent, in the North. In the decade ending in i860, it was 
twenty-seven per cent, in the Southern, and forty-one percent, 
in the Northern section. The increase in the Southwestern 
States was due to emigration carrying with it slave labor; in 
the Northwestern and Pacific States, to a movement of intelli- 
gent and thrifty classes from the older States and Europe, who 
carried with them the institutions of free society. 

This society was founded upon the principles which the 
Puritan carried with him to the bleak shores of New England. 
It had been liberalized by culture, by intercourse with the 
world which the facilities for travel invited, and by the neces- 
sity of absorbing new elements. The Puritan policy of build- 
ing churches and schoolhouses side by side had been continued 
over the vast territory extending to the Missouri River, as 
communities were organized into States, and at last it found 
lodgment on the shores of the Pacific. Massachusetts, with a 
million of inhabitants, devoted five millions of dollars annually 
to public instruction, and newer States paid with great cheer- 
fulness whatever sums were necessary to secure good common 
schools. With education went greater freedom of opinion, a 
constantly increasing toleration and lessening of political ani- 
mosities. The period from 1835 to i860 had been one of great 
intellectual activity in the North. It was the period when the 
influence of the lyceum lecturer was greatest, and during 
which was witnessed the soundest growth of our national lit- 
erature — when the genius of Irving and Paulding, of Cooper 
and Hawthorne met with generous appreciation; when the 
people read the lessons of history in the pages of Hildreth, 
Prescott, Bancroft and Motley ; when their consciences were 
quickened by Channing, Emerson and Whittier, and the men 
of imagination — Bryant, Longfellow, Lowell and Holmes — 
commanded their allegiance. The writings of these developed 
character, promoted sound thought and a purer life, and 



i8 A Political Histor>- of Slavery 

instructed in the grave responsibilities as well as the privileges 
of citizenship. The hour of trial between this progressive 
civilization and another, an aristocracy, was sure to come 
sooner or later. 

This society was now to undergo two very severe tests. 
Wholly occupied with civil pursuits, there was a lack of mili- 
tary training. Among the German citizens, however, were 
found thousands who had been trained to arms in the Father- 
land, and these supplied in a measure what was wanting. 

The second test was much more serious. A people wholly 
unaccustomed to the pressure of taxation, who had learned 
from the maxims of Franklin to dread debt as the beginning 
of political decay, was to be suddenly subjected to both. If 
the curtain could have been pulled aside disclosing the appall- 
ing figures of the future, without revealing the enormous 
resources of the country at the same time, would the admin- 
istration have been permitted to enforce the laws to the extent 
of coercion? It is extremely doubtful. The full powers of 
the people were developed by degrees. With reluctance ^Ir. 
Chase dealt with the financial problem made more difificult by 
the loss of credit during the Buchanan administration. In 
the middle of December, when the incubus of that ill-fated 
administration still overshadowed the country, United States 
fives due in 1865 were selling in New York for ninety-two 
cents on the dollar, and coupon bonds of 1871 at eighty-five 
cents. The total public debt July i, 1857, was $1 1,350,272; 
July I, 1858, $38,512,461; July I, 1859, S54,4i5>393; and 
July I, i86c, it was $61,140,497. This rapid increase was dur- 
ing years of peace. Large additional loans were required to 
carry on the government under Mr. Buchanan, and pay ex- 
traordinary expenses incurred during the first three months of 
Mr. Lincoln's administration, so that by July i, 1861, the 
total public debt had increased to $90,867,828. With this 
load upon his shoulders and a balance of only $2,355,635 in 
the Treasury, Mr. Chase prepared to face a state of war, to 
meet the insatiable demands of every department — with for- 
eign governments incredulous of the ability of the United 



The Border States and Secession 19 

States to deal with the problem. His first step was to im- 
prove the public credit. He found that under the acts of June 
22, i860, and February 8 and March 2, 1861, there was au- 
thority to negotiate loans aggregating $40,964,000. By a dis- 
play of great firmness he brought the rates up from 85 to par. 
This was the situation when the Thirty-seventh Congress con- 
vened, under the President's proclamation, July 4, 1861. 

While the response of the North to the President's procla- 
mation for troops was the revelation of a profound sentiment 
of loyalty, the replies from most of the border slave States 
were an expression of sympathy with secession. "Kentucky 
will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her 
sister Southern States," was the reply of Governor Magoffin, 
while Governor Jackson of Missouri was sure that the requisi- 
tion was "illegal, unconstitutional, revolutionary, inhuman 
and diabolical." These statesmen of the State rights school 
could find no constitutional authority to justify the federal 
government in defending itself against rebellion. Mr. Lin- 
coln and Cassius M. Clay were in favor of testing the question 
by employing the military power for tliat purpose, and the 
loyal people of the country met every requisition of the ex- 
ecutive. The policy of sympathizers in official places was to 
paralyze the administration and give time to the Montgomery 
government to seize the city of Washington and establish it- 
self in the Capitol and the departments. This was the general 
expectation. Immediately after the call for troops North 
Carolina and Arkansas seceded and joined the Confederate 
States. As the people of Virginia and Tennessee had declared 
for the Union by large majorities, the politicians in control of 
the State governments found a way to defeat the popular will. 
By legislative authority military leagues were formed with the 
Confederacy, which permitted confederate troops to take pos- 
session of the States until ordinances of secession could be 
submitted to the people for ratification." What part the peo- 
ple — the Union majority — were expected to take by those who 

' Virginia acted April 17th, Tennessee May 7th. Alexander H. Stephens was 
the agent to convince Virginia of its duty, and Henry W. Milliard of Alabama 



20 A Political History of Slavery 

planned the treaties with the confederate government, was 
disclosed later by Senator J. M. Mason of Virginia. 

If the people should vote to annul the provisional ordinance 
of secession, Virginia would remain in the Union and be com- 
pelled to aid in the work of coercing the rebellious States; and 
the league would prove to be a trap to inveigle her generous 
defenders from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana 
and Mississippi, several thousand of whom were at Harper's 
Ferry and Norfolk, to fulfil the covenant that had been made. 
Should Virginia remain in the Union, her duty would be to 
deliver up those generous friends to the Union army. What 
were those citizens of Virginia to do who in their consciences 
could not vote to separate Virginia from the Union? The 
reply, as showing the agency the people had in this business 
— their freedom of choice — is of historical importance: '^ Honor 
and duty alike require that they should not vote on the question ; 
and if they retain such opinions they must leave the State. " And 
this is how the Old Dominion and the Union State of Ten- 
nessee were coerced to take sides with the Gulf States. Their 
citizens were found in both armies and the power of Virginia 
was permanently divided — to the relief of the inhabitants west 
of the Blue Ridge. But to Ohio and not to the free consent 
of the tide-water district did they owe their release from an 
intolerable association. 

Maryland was immediately the scene of chief interest. She 
occupied the routes to the national capital. If these could be 
closed, the North would be shut out and Washington would 
soon fall before the armed power of the Confederacy. This 
was well understood by both sides, and both played for the 
stake. The Montgomery government, being prepared, moved 
with greater celerity. The treaty with Virginia removed all 
obstructions, and Harper's Ferry was occupied by a consid- 

was commissioned to go to Tennessee. The argument employed was, that Presi- 
dent Lincoln had usurped the authority to make war, and proposed to march an 
army into the Southern States upon the ground that it was his duty to suppress 
an insurrection. To resist this usurpation would be to fight in vindication of 
constitutional liberty. See Politics and Pen Pictures, by Henry W. Hilliard. 



The Border States and Secession 21 

erable force, which was expected to aid in carrying secession 
in Maryland. At Gosport navy yard were not only valuable 
supplies and machinery, but many ships, including the Merri- 
mac, of which the federal government was deprived through 
a fatality which pursued it throughout the early stages of the 
war. Orders to remove the vessels were too long delayed, and 
when finally transmitted were defeated by the treachery of 
officers at that station by whom the ships were scuttled. An 
attempt was made to destroy the rest of the property to pre- 
vent it from falling into the hands of the enemy, but with only 
partial success. These two disasters befel while the first regi- 
ments were forcing their way through Maryland to relieve the 
beleaguered government. There is strong circumstantial evi- 
dence for the belief that a conspiracy had been formed after 
the presidential election to cause Maryland to secede, to seize 
Washington, the public buildings and archives, to prevent the 
inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, and to establish a revolutionary 
government which would dictate terms to the Northern sec- 
tion and receive recognition from foreign governments, but the 
refusal of Governor Hicks in January to convene the Legisla- 
ture thwarted the conspiracy. Then followed the plot to 
assassinate Mr. Lincoln as he should pass through Baltimore 
en route, which was discovered and frustrated. Baltimore was 
now the centre of another plot — a return in part to the original 
conspiracy — to impede the march of Northern soldiers and to 
carry the State of Maryland over to the Confederacy despite 
the opposition of the loyal Governor. Some five hundred 
unarmed Pennsylvania militia passed through on the i8th of 
April unnoticed, but when on the following day the gallant 
6th Massachusetts Regiment was being transferred from one 
station to another mobs assaulted it, wounding twenty-five 
— several fatally. Nine citizens were killed and several 
wounded. When the news reached the country at large that 
the militia of Massachusetts, while marching peacefully over 
the common highway to the defence of the national capital, 
had been murderously assaulted, the excitement witnessed 
when the flag floating over Sumter was fired upon was 



22 A Political History of Slavery 

renewed. * ' It seemed," said Governor Andrew four years later 
in describing this event, which occurred on the eve of the an- 
niversary of the battle of Lexington — "it seemed as if there 
descended into our hearts a mysterious strength and into our 
minds a supernal illumination." ' As the emergency grew, the 
determination to vindicate the supremacy of national authority 
hardened into adamant. 

Resolved that no more troops should pass southward, the 
Baltimoreans cut telegraph wires and poles, burnt and tore up 
railroad bridges, refused or gave permission at will to vessel 
owners to depart, and comported themselves in all respects as 
though a state of war existed between the United States and 
the State of Maryland. This was not the work of an irre- 
sponsible mob, but of the Board of Police, with the coopera- 
tion of disloyal citizens. The Baltimore City Guard was 
employed in the work of destroying railroad bridges. Infor- 
mation being received that over two thousand Pennsylvania 
troops had arrived at Cockeysville from Harrisburg, the Police 
Commissioners gave orders for the assembling and arming 
of the volunteers and other military corps, all under the com- 
mand of Major-General George H. Stuart.'' This prepara- 
tion not appearing sufficiently formidable, a proposition was 
made for the formation of independent volunteer companies, 
for the purpose of immediately meeting the invaders and driv- 
ing them back, which met with favor. Hundreds of impetu- 
ous spirits left the city in wagons, carriages and other 
vehicles, determined to wage a guerrilla warfare with the ad- 
vancing force.^ The people in the city were in a state of the 
wildest excitement, services in the churches were interrupted, 
and the most improbable rumors fed the imagination of the 
mobs in the streets. The Pennsylvanians encamped at 
Cockeysville were found to be a peaceable and orderly body 
of men, who were prepared to extend friendly courtesies 
to those who had suddenly become their foes. Meanwhile 

' Sketch of the Official Life of Governor Andrezv, p. 33. 
2 Who afterwards entered the confederate service. 
^Baltimore American, April 22d. 



Obstruction by Maryland 23 

the mayor of Baltimore had been summoned to Washing- 
ton for a conference, and at his earnest solicitation the Presi- 
dent directed that loyal troops should be ordered to return to 
Harrisburg. 

Washington, isolated and beleaguered by enemies, was in a 
most precarious condition. Besides the half dozen companies 
of the regular army, General Scott had fifteen companies of 
the District militia, and civilian volunteers under Cassius M. 
Clay and James H. Lane." These were distributed so as to 
protect the Capitol, the department buildings and the execu- 
tive mansion. Batteries of light artillery were posted to guard 
the bridges, and marines to guard the navy yard and 
wharves. Every precaution was taken to prevent a surprise, 
but unless Northern soldiers had forced their way through 
Maryland promptly the history of this country had been dif- 
ferent. It is possible that the arrival of the five hundred 
Pennsylvanians on the iStli and of the 6th Massachusetts on 
the following day disconcerted the plans of the conspirators 
and prevented the enterprise of suddenly seizing the depart- 
ments before confederate troops could arrive to aid in the 
work of expeUing the Lincoln administration. It is certain 
that the government was in imminent danger for many days, 
located as it was in the midst of a disloyal population, and 
menaced by the treachery of subordinates and by armed foes 
in Virginia and Maryland. 

The situation in Maryland was hourly becoming more criti- 
cal. Marshal Kane of Baltimore, after the attack on the 
Massachusetts troops, telegraphed to Bradley T. Johnson at 
Frederick, "to send expresses over the mountains and valleys 
of Maryland and Virginia for the riflemen to come without 
delay," and declared his purpose to fight the Northern soldiers 
or die. An agent had been despatched to General Harper in 
command of the confederate troops at Harper's Ferry, to 
secure his cooperation, who received the assurance that six 
thousand men would march for Baltimore at a moment's 

' See Memoirs of Cassius M. Clay, and Wilson's Rise and Fall, vol. iii., 
chap. xii. 



24 A Political History of Slavery 

notice.' The seizure of Fort McHenry was planned; the de- 
parture of the United States ship Allegheny was prevented, 
and the request of her commander to use a steam tug in the 
harbor was refused by the city government. The restoration 
of the telegraph wires was granted only on condition that all 
messages should be subject to the inspection of the Board of 
Police Commissioners." The only wire at the service of the 
government was one under the control of these conspirators. 
In this emergency the government communicated with the loyal 
North by messengers despatched through Wheeling and Pitts- 
burg, who made their way by different routes to New York and 
other cities. Thus situated it became necessary to clothe citi- 
zens with extraordinary power, and in New York Governor 
Morgan, William M. Evarts, George D. Morgan, R. M. 
Blatchford and Moses H. Grinnell were commissioned to rep- 
resent the War and Navy Departments, to whom ofificers re- 
ported for instructions in forwarding troops and supplies. The 
Treasury Department was similarly represented by John A. 
Dix and George Opdyke, who acted without compensation.^ 
The route through Baltimore being closed, access to Washing- 
ton was had through Annapolis. The 8th Massachusetts 
under General Butler was the first to arrive at the harbor. The 
mayor of the city and the Governor objected to his landing his 
men, and to the passage of troops through the State. To the 
Governor, General Butler said in reply ; ' ' Sir, we came here not 
as citizens of Massachusetts, but as citizen soldiers of the 
United States, with no intention to invade any State, but to 
protect the capital of our common country from invasion. We 
shall give no cause of offence, but there must be no fugitive 
shots or stray bricks on the way."* It was the mission of 
Butler to do things and not to stand upon the order of any 
man. He landed his men, repaired the sole locomotive found, 
re-laid the railway track, and opened a route to Washington. 

' Records of the Police Commissioners and other papers found in possession of 
Marshal Kane on the occasion of his arrest. 
^ Ibid. McPherson's History, p. 393. 
^ Sf-ward at IVaskington, vol. ii., p. 551, * Xational Intelligencer, April 24th. 



Obstruction by Maryland 25 

The arrival of the citizen soldiers from New York and Massa- 
chusetts gave rise to a grateful sense of relief. 

Annapolis was now the gateway to the capital through 
which the loyal men of the North marched rapidly and without 
obstruction. The "Department of Annapolis " was created, 
which included the country for twenty miles on each side of 
the railroad from Annapolis to the city of Washington as far 
as Bladensburg. General Butler was placed in command, and 
soon after he was ordered to take possession of the Relay 
House, an important strategic point a few miles from Balti- 
more. General Scott was preparing to open the route to the 
North through that city, where a change was gradually taking 
place under the influence of a display of vigor by the govern- 
ment. On the 9th of May five hundred regulars from Texas, 
Sherman's regular battery from Minnesota, and other troops 
had been successfully transferred from Locust Point through 
South Baltimore, in the presence of a large concourse of peo- 
ple and the police force; and on the night of the 13th, during 
the prevalence of a thunder-storm, General Butler with a part 
of the famous 6th Massachusetts Regiment and other troops 
marched from the Relay House through the streets of Balti- 
more to Federal Hill, where he established his camp and raised 
the flag of the United States, which could be seen from every 
part of the city. It was a hint to the disaffected which they 
were bound to respect. General Butler acted on his own 
responsibility, and was severely censured by General Scott and 
others who regarded the enterprise as exceedingly hazardous.' 
It may have been reckless, but it was successful, and the 
people of the North applauded. 

Troops came forward rapidly, communications by rail and 
telegraph were restored, the government was made secure, 
and the apprehensions of the country were at last relieved. 
The danger escaped had been extreme. A small force of 
disciplined men could have taken possession of the capital of 
the nation, with its archives, its treasure and buildings, and 
changed the history of the Republic. "Jefferson Davis could 

' Butler's Autobiography. 



26 A Political History of Slavery 

have, and if I had been at his elbow as he once desired I 
should be," says General Butler, "would have attended divine 
service in his own pew at the church at Washington as Presi- 
dent of the Confederacy. I know not what prevented him 
save his education at West Point, where the necessity of a 
rapid movement in warlike operations is taught in the 
negative." ' There is much to be thankful for, and this es- 
cape not among the least. Amidst the countless perils which 
beset the government — four years in the treacherous quick- 
sands of the Buchanan administration; the crippling of the 
public service through the resignations of military, naval and 
civil officers; the betrayal of trusts; the seizure of forts and 
arms, of navy yards and vessels; the isolation of the capital 
and its contemplated capture — there were providentially a few 
beacon lights. Mr. Buchanan's administration closed with a 
loyal Cabinet controlling the departments; an election in 
Maryland had placed at the head of the State a loyal man, 
who with the help of a brave and devoted woman ' defeated 
secession. Maryland was the key to the situation, and in 
bringing that State under the control of the government the 
future course of Delaware,' Kentucky and Missouri was ren- 
dered less uncertain. 

These communities where families were divided — son against 
father and brother against brother — experienced all of the 
misery, all of the bitterness of civil war. They were the ob- 
jects of Mr. Lincoln's solicitude, who, while supporting the 
Unionists, was lenient toward those whose divided sympathies 
moved them to assume an attitude of neutrality. The wis- 
dom of Mr. Lincoln's conservative course was vindicated by 
the results of the special election held in Kentucky on the 
20th of June. A Union majority of more than iifty-five 
thousand and the return to Congress of a delegation contain- 
ing only one disunionist was cause for congratulation. John 

■ Bwilex's A tito biography, p. 221. 

2 Miss Anne Ella Carroll. 

^ Sixty per cent, of the military population of Delaware served in the Union 



Kentucky Rejects Secession 27 

J. Crittenden, who was chosen in the Frankfort district, had 
early addressed the Legislature of the State in a powerful 
speech denouncing secession, and declaring that he would 
never consent to give up the Union. To his son, Lieut. - 
Colonel George Crittenden of the army, he wrote these words, 
which may be recalled for their patriotism as well as for the 
evidence they give of the demoralization of the time : 

Be true to the government that has trusted in you, and stand fast 
to your nation's flag — the Stars and Stripes — and do not resign under 
any circumstances without consultation with me. There have been 
so many instances of distinguished treachery and dishonor in the 
army that I would be proud to see you distinguished by exemplary 
loyalty and devotion to your flag and to your country.' 

Governor Magofifin's hands were tied by a Union Legislature 
which refused to call a convention, and refused to trust solely 
to him the distribution of money and arms provided for the 
defence of the State. The Home Guards and State Guards 
were required to take an oath to support the Constitution of 
the United States as well as the constitution of Kentucky. 
But the attitude of neutrality at first assumed was gradually 
changed with the consent of the Unionists who had advised it, 
after it became evident that Simon B. Buckner, Inspector- 
General on the Governor's staff, was facilitating recruiting for 
the confederate army. The active Unionists found employ- 
ment in independent organizations or in regiments recruited 
with the help of Governor Morton. The position of neutrality 
was at first assumed by Kentucky by the advice of her best- 
known citizens. It was a necessity of the situation. It was 
the only course possible, under the difficulties surrounding 
her, favorable to the Union. It was believed that any other 
course would have resulted in civil war within the State, which 
would have injured rather than helped the Union cause.' 

' April 30, 1861. Life, vol. ii., p. 321. 

' Letter of Chief Justice Robertson to Col. Alex. R. McKee, of Pulaski County 
June 7, 1 861. 



CHAPTER II 

SUSPENSION OF HABEAS CORPUS— THE FIRST REPUBLICAN 
CONGRESS 



WASHINGTON made secure, it became apparent that 
the government was entering on a war of much du- 
ration and of great magnitude. A blockade of the 
Southern ports was ordered on the 19th of April, and an order 
was issued providing for the enlistment of 18,000 seamen for 
the navy, increasing the strength of that arm to 25,600 men. 
A little later Mr. Lincoln called for 42,000 additional volun- 
teers to serve three years or during the war, and added eleven 
new regiments, numbering 22,714 men to the regular army. 
The Governor of Maryland now raised four regiments for the 
United States service. 

In a community with divided sympathies it was not surpris- 
ing that while some were volunteering for the Union cause 
others were enlisting for the confederate. An attempt was 
made to stop the work of the secession agents by arrests. 
John Merryman, detected in enlisting recruits to go South, 
was arrested and imprisoned in Fort McHenry by order of 
General Cadwallader in command at Baltimore, who, to a writ 
of habeas corptis issued by Chief Justice Taney, replied that the 
President had authorized him to suspend the writ in such cases. 
May 27th, the Chief Justice issued a writ of attachment direct- 
ing the United States marshal to produce the body of General 
Cadwallader on the following day, "to answer for his contempt 
in refusing to produce the body of John Merryman." The 
marshal was unable to serve the writ, and thereupon the Chief 

28 



Suspension of Habeas Corpus 29 

Justice filed an elaborate opinion which declared that the power 
to suspend the writ was vested in Congress and not in the 
President, and that the arrest and imprisonment of Merryman 
was an invasion of the right of personal liberty guaranteed by 
the Constitution. If the authority which the Constitution had 
confided to the judiciary department and judicial officers might 
thus upon any pretext or under any circumstances be usurped 
by the military power at its discretion, the people of the 
United States were no longer living under a government of 
laws, "but every citizen holds life, liberty and property at the 
will and pleasure of the army officer in whose military district 
he may happen to be found." 

This was the first of a number of cases in v/hich the writ of 
habeas corpus was suspended. This action sharply divided pub- 
lic opinion independently of party associations. The Ameri- 
can people had not ceased to be jealous of the assertion of 
any power encroaching on their personal liberty, and were fear- 
ful of the establishment of a precedent that might be used at 
some future time by an ambitious and dangerous man tempo- 
rarily entrusted with official power. The principle embodied 
in the constitution of Massachusetts —"The military power 
shall always be held In exact subordination to the civil au- 
thority, and be governed by it " — has been made a part of the 
constitution of the other States, and may be said to be the 
shield of American liberty. That no person except those in 
actual service in the militia, the army or the navy shall be sub- 
ject to or punishable by martial law, is the intent, if history 
speaks truthfully, of the people. General Jackson enforced 
martial law at New Orleans and arbitrarily sent Judge Hall be- 
yond his lines to prevent him from issuing writs of habeas 
corpus, and excepting in this case and that of the Dorr rebel- 
lion in Rhode Island, the American people had remained free 
from the menace of martial law until a gigantic rebellion 
brought the national government in peril. The question be- 
came immediately prominent. Eminent jurists, including 
the President, controverted the doctrine laid down by the 
Chief Justice, and showed that the power authorized by the 



30 A Political Histor}^ of Slavery 

Constitution in time of insurrection or rebellion could never be 
exercised effectually by Congress. 

The power of suspension is designed for cases of the highest pos- 
sible danger to the nation; danger which permits no delay; danger 
so great and so immediate that the inestimable right of personal lib- 
erty is regarded as secondary to it; and in cases where the personal 
liberty of individuals, in the judgment of the executive officer, en- 
dangers the public safety, it deprives them of it for a time, without 
legal accusation, at his instance, as the guardian of the Constitution.' 

In 1863, Congress legislated on this subject, and gave the 
President power to suspend the writ anywhere in the United 
States. A similar suspension took place in the Confederate 
States. After the war, the Supreme Court decided that no 
branch of the government has power to suspend the writ in 
districts where the courts are open, — that the writ may be 
suspended as to persons directly involved in the war, but that 
the writ is still to issue, the court deciding whether the appli- 
cant came within the excepted classes or not. 

Meantime the greatest activity prevailed everywhere in prep- 
aration for what all saw must be a long and doubtful contest. 
Thousands of patriotic men and women were devoting their 
time and energies to the Union cause without money consider- 
ation, and yet the business of the farm, of the shop, of the 
press, of the bank and of the counting-house was carried on 
with wonted regularity, and even more prosperously than ever 
before. New demands were made on human skill and energy, 
which were instantly met. Under the influence of these in- 
centives to activity, of the discussions of questions arising from 
the new order of things, of the practical application of new in- 

* See an important collection of the critical and controversial pamphlets of the 
day published by John Campbell, and C. Sherman & Son, of Philadelphia, in 
which are included two exhaustive papers by Horace Birney, who was one of the 
most conspicuous of the opponents of the Chief Justice ; see also the opinion of 
Attorney-General Bates, the message of the President to Congress, July 4th, the 
view of Prof. Theophilus Parsons in the Boston Daily Advertiser, June 5th, and 
the very able argument of Aaron F. Perry and the opinion of Judge Leavitt in 
the Vallandigham case. 



Suspension of Habeas Corpus 31 

ventions and of the discoveries of science, and of the ever-in- 
creasing intercourse between people of different communities, 
provincialisms became less prominent, and the intellectual 
horizon of the people was greatly extended. This was the 
beginning of a new era for every department of the press, for 
the telegraph and the railroad. 

The status of the border States was being determined as 
the unity of purpose and power of the North was displayed. 
Governor Jackson of Missouri, scheming to carry that State 
into the Confederacy, by means of a convention, was defeated 
by the Unionists. He then formed a plan to accomplish it 
through military organization ostensibly for the protection of 
the State, but his camp at St. Louis was broken up by General 
Nathaniel Lyon, who compelled him to become a fugitive, and 
who established the supremacy of the national authority. The 
State convention, which had taken a recess in March, was re- 
convened at Jefferson City, July 22d, and proceeded by ordi- 
nance to declare the State offices vacant and to provide for 
new elections. All treasonable legislation was declared null 
and void, and on the 31st of July a provisional government 
was inaugurated, at the head of which was placed Hamilton R. 
Gamble. Thus Maryland, the western part of Virginia, Ken- 
tucky and Missouri were kept in the Union. On the other 
hand, the confederate government, now transferred to Rich- 
mond, was vigilant, active, energetic and determined. The 
great number of experienced officers who resigned from the 
army of the United States and took service under the confed- 
erate government gave it an immediate advantage in the work 
of organizing and disciplining volunteers, and in planning for 
the defence of the South. Fortifications were springing up on 
the Potomac and the Mississippi, on the Gulf and on the At- 
lantic coast. The delicacy that had regarded the sensitive- 
ness of Virginia unionism, and left Harper's Ferry and the 
Gosport navy yard ' with its wealth of ships, cannon and 

' The Gosport navy yard yielded 2500 cannon of all kinds and sizes, shot, 
shell and other warlike missiles to a very large amount, a collection of ship- 
building and outfitting material, large and valuable, including steel plates and 



32 A Political History of Slavery 

marine supplies and invaluable dry-dock with inadequate pro- 
tection, delivered into the hands of the enemy the means for 
defence at the most critical period in the history of a new gov- 
ernment. Privateering was authorized and encouraged, and 
every means available employed to defeat the blockade of the 
Southern ports which had been proclaimed by Mr. Lincoln 
April 19th, The point of weakness in Mr. Davis's government 
was the treasury. Of men for the armies there was no lack, as 
the slave population furnished the labor for the cultivation of 
the fields, for the care of the homes and for the erection of 
fortifications and the drudgery of the camps. 

The political revolution which Southern statesmen had pre- 
dicted and professed to fear, was made complete by their own 
act in 1 861. When the Thirty-seventh Congress assembled in 
special session according to the President's proclamation on the 
4th day of July, each House contained a Republican majority. 
Andrew Johnson was the sole Senator from the seceded States, 
and his attitude towards the government presented a striking 
contrast to that maintained by the Senators from Kentucky 
and Missouri. John C. Breckinridge, successor to the loyal 
Crittenden, remained for a brief while ambassador as it were of 
the Southern Confederacy and then withdrew to share its for- 
tunes on the field of battle. A few Senators, unable to divest 
themselves of party predilections in the presence of a danger 
threatening republican government, remained to embarrass the 
administration, but they were too few in number to defeat 
vital legislation. Their example, however, served to feed po- 
litical animosities and to keep alive in several Northern States 
a party incapable of taking a broad and patriotic view of any 
question — a party that year after year in convention solemnly 
re-affirmed the doctrine of the resolutions of 1798 and 1799 as 
the sum of political wisdom, 

iron castings ready for immediate use. In the magazine were found three thousand 
barrels of gunpowder and a large number of shells loaded. The ship Merrimac , 
which had been scuttled, was raised and repaired and made an effective confeder- 
ate instrument in the predatory warfare on American commerce. The captured 
arsenals supplied the confederates with 18,650 rifles and 145,154 muskets. — 
Alexandria Gazette, April 24th. 



The Thirty-seventh Congress 33 

Hannibal Hamlin, transferred from the floor of the Senate 
to the vice-presidency, presided over the deliberations of that 
body, and administered the oath to James H. Lane and 
Samuel C. Pomeroy as Senators from the new State of Kan- 
sas, admitted at the previous session, whose organization had 
brought a division in the Democratic party and radical politi- 
cal mutations. Historic justice was soon to be meted out to 
Virginia, "The Mother of Presidents," whose children, for- 
getting the traditions of a glorious past, had followed Senators 
Mason and Hunter after strange gods: Virginia was to be 
divided — the western part, which for a generation had pro- 
tested against the slavery rule of the tide-water counties, was 
to be organized into a distinct community. For the present, 
the credentials of Messrs. Willey and Carlile as successors to 
Mason and Hunter, with the signature of Francis H. Pierpont 
as Governor, and certified by the seal of the State, were 
brought up for immediate consideration and, after debate, 
were recognized as valid, and the Senators were seated. Or- 
ville H. Browning appeared in place of the lamented Douglas, 
and John Sherman as successor to Salmon P. Chase, who 
served one day of a new term before qualifying as Secretary 
of the Treasury. Ira Harris succeeded William H. Seward, 
and David Wilmot, whose name for many years stood for a 
political principle, appeared in place of Simon Cameron. The 
able men — Sumner, Wilson, Fessenden, Collamer, Wade, 
Hale, Trumbull, Doohttle, Harlan, Chandler — who as a mi- 
nority sustained the assaults of the majority, now for the most 
part engaged in rebellion, became responsible for legislation 
under the new order. Three of the new Senators, Sherman of 
Ohio, Grimes of Iowa and Anthony of Rhode Island, were 
destined to take high rank. 

The House, which contained many men who had parliamen- 
tary experience, was organized by the election of Galusha A. 
Grow of Pennsylvania as Speaker, and Emerson Etheridge, a 
loyalist of Tennessee, as clerk. It very properly resolved to 
consider only subjects relating to the war — financial, military, 
and naval ; and early showed a spirit answering to the great 



34 A Political History of Slavery 

popular uprising. For the first time in the history of the 
government the representatives of the people were called on 
to legislate in the midst of an armed force. On every hand 
were fortifications, and camps, and patrols, evidences of a state 
of war. From the executive mansion an early victim — Colonel 
Ellsworth of the Zouaves, whose zeal and genius had won him 
position at the early age of twenty-four — was buried with mili- 
tary honors. He had been shot by a rebel sympathizer after 
raising the American flag in place of a confederate flag over a 
hotel in Alexandria. This tragedy gave startling evidence of 
the passion working for the destruction of the government. 
Every act henceforth took on the sternness and gravity of a 
life-and-death struggle. 

The message of the President was characterized by modera- 
tion of statement and that calmness of tone best calculated to 
inspire confidence while carrying conviction to the mind of the 
reader. In stating a fact, or putting a proposition, on the 
stump or in print Mr. Lincoln was without an equal. After 
describing the condition in which he found the government 
and the circumstances relating to the fall of Fort Sumter, he 
added : The insurgents 

assailed and reduced the fort to drive out the visible authority of 
the federal Union, and thus force it to immediate dissolution. 
. . . Then and thereby, the assailants of the government began 
the conflict of arms, without a gun in sight, or in expectancy, to re- 
turn their fire, save only the few in the fort, sent to that harbor years 
before for their own protection, and still ready to give that protec- 
tion in whatever was lawful. In this act, discarding all else, they 
have forced upon the country the distinct issue, "immediate disso- 
lution or blood," And this issue embraces more than the fate of 
these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the 
question, whether a constitutional republic or democracy — a govern- 
ment of the people by the same people — can or cannot maintain its 
territorial integrity against its own domestic foes. It presents the 
question whether discontented individuals, too few in numbers to 
control administration according to organic law in any case, can 
always, upon the pretenses made in this case, or on any other pre- 



Mr. Lincoln's First Message 35 

tenses, or arbitrarily without any pretense, break up their govern- 
ment, and thus practically put an end to free government upon the 
earth. It forces us to ask: Is there in all republics this inherent 
and fatal weakness ? Must a government, of necessity, be too strong 
for the liberties of its own people, or too iveak to maintain its own 
existence ? 

So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out the war 
power of the government and so to resist force employed for its de- 
struction by force for its preservation. 

Mr. Lincoln in a few paragraphs exposed the treachery of 
the sophism by which the Southern people had been deceived, 
viz. : "That any State of the Union may consistently with the 
national Constitution, and therefore lawfully and peacefully, 
withdraw from the Union without the consent of the Union 
or of any other State " ; and said that it might well be ques- 
tioned whether there was a majority of the legally qualified 
voters of any State except South Carolina in favor of disunion. 

In referring to the manifestations of public sentiment, he 
paid this remarkable tribute to the general intelligence and 
genius of the American people: 

It may be affirmed without extravagance that the free institutions 
we enjoy have developed the powers and improved the condition of 
our whole people beyond any example in the world. Of this we now 
have a striking and an impressive illustration. So large an army as 
the government has now on foot was never before known without a 
soldier in it but who had taken his place there of his own free choice. 
But more than this, there are many single regiments whose mem- 
bers, one and another, possess full practical knowledge of all the arts, 
sciences, professions, and whatever else, whether useful or elegant, 
is known in the world; and there is scarcely one from which there 
could not be selected a President, a Cabinet, a Congress, and per- 
haps a court, abundantly competent to administer the government 
itself. Nor do I say this is not true also in the army of our late 
friends, now adversaries in this contest; but if it is, so much better 
the reason why the government which has conferred such benefits 
on both them and us should not be broken up. 



36 A Political History of Slavery 

The President asked that Congress would place at the con- 
trol of the government at least four hundred thousand men 
and four hundred millions of money, and concluded with these 
solemn words: 

He felt that he had no moral right to shrink, or even to count the 
chances of his own life, in what might follow. In full view of his 
great responsibility, he has so far done what he has deemed his duty. 
You will now, according to your own judgment, perform yours. 
. . . And having thus chosen our course, without guile and 
with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward 
without fear and with manly hearts. 

The debate in both Houses on the message is of historical 
importance as showing clearly the views of different classes in 
the great upheaval of the time. Mr. Jefferson on the occasion 
of the purchase of Louisiana, — the most memorable act of his 
administration, — believing that the Constitution did not confer 
upon him any such power, hinted at asking for an enlargement 
of power from the nation. This was privately done in corre- 
spondence with friends. But he asked Congress to ratify the 
treaty "in silence." "Whatever Congress shall think it neces- 
sary to do should be done with as little debate as possible, and 
particularly so far as respects the constitutional difficulty." 
Mr. Lincoln's method was in marked contrast. He resorted 
to extraordinary measures to meet extraordinary difficulties, 
but all were fully explained to Congress and to the country. 
The people, indeed, approved, when the measures were taken. 
But while the majority in Congress were willing to approve 
the acts of the executive, performed as they were under a 
sense of the highest responsibility to the country, they did 
not respect the President so little as to pass by in silence the 
principles involved; nor did he expect it. The meaning of 
the example of Pym and Hampden, the fame of which re- 
sounds throughout the ages and vivifies Anglo-Saxon govern- 
ments, was well understood by him. 

The President had put forth his hand to save the country, 



Debate on the Message 37 

not to overthrow its liberties. He asked the Congress to ap- 
prove and declare to be in all respects legal and valid : 

His proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand men to 
suppress insurrectionary combinations; his proclamation set- 
ting on foot a blockade of certain ports; his proclamation 
establishing a blockade of the ports within the States of Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina; his act authorizing the suspension 
of the writ of habeas corpus between Philadelphia and Wash- 
ington ; his proclamation calling for additional volunteers and 
increasing the regular army and navy; his act authorizing the 
suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in Florida. 

A conference among Senators resulted in an agreement to 
oppose any permanent increase of the regular army and navy. 
It was evident that the Anglo-Saxon jealousy of a standing 
army was as alert in the presence of a force menacing the gov- 
ernment as in time of peace. Mr. King of New York moved 
a proviso that within six months after the authority of the 
government should be established in the insurrectionary 
States, the army should be reduced to the numbers authorized 
by law on July i, 1861. The generous rallying of the 
people, with blood and treasure, at a moment's call, said Mr- 
Hale, demonstrated that there was no great necessity for 
standing armies in this country. Mr. Baker would give the 
President a million of men, the whole revenue of the govern- 
ment and the whole property of the people, and say: 

Do not make peace until the glory of the American flag shall be 
its own defense; when a volunteer drummer boy shall be able to 
carry it in every city and in every wilderness wherever it has once 
floated, amid the enthusiasm, the submission and profound rever- 
ence of every man, woman and child who gazes upon its stars. 
When that hour shall come we want no army. 

It was contended that the power to increase the regular 
army was in Congress alone; that the call by the President at 
the time it was made was unnecessary ; and it was believed 
that the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was a danger- 
ous precedent. It was proposed to declare legal the acts 



38 A Political History of Slavery 

which had been done by the President in the recess of Con- 
gress. Would such declaration, asked Mr. Trumbull, make 
them legal if they were not legal? Would it make them so if 
they were unconstitutional and void? He was disposed to 
give the necessary power to the administration to suppress the 
rebellion ; but he was not disposed to say that the administra- 
tion has unlimited power and can do what it pleases after Con- 
gress meets. He favored conferring certain powers upon the 
executive by legislative enactment. 

Mr. Sherman would vote heartily to approve the first three 
enumerated acts of the President, and he believed them legal 
and constitutional ; but he did not believe the President had 
the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, because that 
power was expressly given to Congress alone. And he be- 
lieved that the power to increase the regular army was given 
by the Constitution to Congress alone. Yet, he added, he 
believed the President did right. "He did precisely what I 
would have done if I had been in his place — no more, no 
less ; but I cannot here in my place as a Senator, under oath, 
declare that what he did was legal, and in consonance with the 
provisions of the Constitution." ' The object of the resolution 
was secured by making it a clause in a bill conferring certain 
powers upon the President. 

Professions of love for the Union in the mouths of Senators 
and members who were engaged in the treasonable work of 
obstructing the government scarcely served to conceal the 
purpose in their hearts. One of these, Burnett of Kentucky, 
when asked if he would vote for a volunteer force to put down 
the rebellion, replied: "Not for one man," which invited this 
comment from a fellow Democrat * who soon after joined the 
Union forces in the field : 

' Cong. Globe, Special Session, Thirty-seventh Congress. 

' Mr. McClernand of Illinois. The worst obstructionists were Burnett and 
Vallandigham of the House, and Senators Breckinridge and Powell of Ken- 
tucky, Polk and Johnson of Missouri. Burnett, Breckinridge, Polk and John- 
son soon after entered the confederate service. Vallandigham not having the 
manliness to do that, was expelled from Ohio in 1863, after having caused great 
mischief. 



Breckinridge and Baker 39 

When the gentleman from Kentucky took his seat upon this floor, 
he took upon himself a sole obligation, sanctioned by an oath in the 
sight of the country and before God, that he would support the Con- 
stitution. Can he do so by folding his arms while the batteries of 
rebellion are levelled at the capital ? Is that the way he proposes 
to discharge his obligation ? 

Senator Breckinridge declared that he would not pledge the 
resources of the Union to support the Constitution by war, as 
in his judgment it would have the contrary effect. 

On another occasion — it was after the first battle of Bull 
Run^ — during the consideration of "a bill to suppress insurrec- 
tion and sedition," the Senator from Kentucky spoke his 
sentiments with greater plainness, which led to one of the most 
dramatic incidents ever witnessed in the Senate. 

Nothing but ruin [he exclaimed], utter ruin to the North, to the 
South, to the East, to the West, will follow the prosecution of this 
contest. You may look forward to innumerable armies; you may 
look forward to countless treasures — all spent/<?r the purpose of deso- 
lating and ravaging this continent; at the end leaving us just where 
we are now. We have separation now; it is only made worse by 
war, and an utter extinction of all those sentiments of common in- 
terest and feeling which might lead to a political reunion founded 
upon consent and upon a conviction of its advantages. Let the war 
go on, however, and soon, in addition to the moans of widows and 
orphans all over this land, you will hear the cry of distress from 
those who want food and the comforts of life. The people will be 
unable to pay the grinding taxes which a fanatical spirit will attempt 
to impose upon them. Nay, more, you will %^q. further separation.^ 

The Senator predicted that the Pacific States would with- 
drav/, that New England would separate from the Northwest 
and within two years there would be four confederacies. This 
was not worse than had been heard in the Senate before. 
Earlier in the session. Senator Powell had drawn an even 
darker picture. He had described a limitless debt with an in- 
adequate revenue; commerce ruined, every material interest 
' Cong, Globe, Special Session, Thirty-seventh Congress, p, 377. 



40 A Political History of Slavery 

destroyed, people thrown out of employment, the workshops 
closed, the shipping rotting, every art calculated to make 
people great, free, prosperous and happy prostrated. "You 
may sack cities," he continued, "you may burn houses, you 
may cut throats for twenty years, and you will never reinstate 
States and reconstruct and reform the Union b}*that course." ' 
All this had been borne with as something expected from 
Powell, but Breckinridge stood in different relations. He was 
a representative of an honored American family ; he had been 
Vice-President of the United States. Perhaps speaking in 
this tone of deprecation after the defeat of Bull Run aggra- 
vated the offence. But be that as it may, he had scarcely taken 
his seat when the brilliant Senator from Oregon, — Colonel 
Baker,— who had already taken by storm the hearts of the 
people of the North, and held the respect of his opponents, 
rose to reply. His figure, erect, tall and well formed, would 
have commanded attention in any assembly of men ; his face 
inspired confidence. His features were regular in outline and 
refined in expression ; his eye blue and keen ; his clean-shaven 
face rosy with health. As this handsome man, dressed in the 
uniform of a colonel of the army, with his sword lying upon 
his desk before him, was recognized by the presiding officer, 
all eyes were fixed upon him expectantly, and a stillness fell 
upon the chamber more impressive than noisy clamor. Colonel 
Baker's reply exposed the sophistries of the Kentuckian's 
argument, and laid bare in delicate but eloquent language the 
motive behind it. What, he asked, would the Senator have? 
With the confederate army within twenty miles of the capital, 
advancing or threatening to advance to overwhelm the govern- 
ment, to shake the pillars of the Union, or prostrate them in 
ruins, 

are we to stop and talk about an uprising sentiment in the North 
against the war? Is it not the manly part to go on as we have be- 
gun, to raise money, and levy armies, to organize them, to prepare 
to advance; when we do advance to regulate that advance by all 

' Cong. Globe, Special Session, Thirty-seventh Congress, p. 70. 



The Bull Run Disaster 41 

the laws and rules that civilization and humanity will allow in time 
of battle? To talk about stopping is idle; we will never stop. Will 
the Senator yield to rebellion? Will he shrink from armed insurrec- 
tion? Or would he conduct this war so feebly that the whole world 
would smile at us in derision? What would he have? Those speeches 
of his, sown broadcast over the land, what clear, distinct meaning 
have they? Are they not intended for disorganization in our very 
midst? Are they not intended to dull our weapons? Are they not 
intended to animate our enemies? Sir, are they not words of bril- 
liant, polished treason, even in the very capitol of the confederacy? 

What would have been thought, if in another capitol, in another 
republic, in a yet more martial age, a Senator as grave, not more 
eloquent or dignified than the Senator from Kentucky, yet with the 
Roman purple flowing over his shoulders, had risen in his place, 
surrounded by all the illustrations of Roman glory, and declared 
that advancing Hannibal was just, and that Carthage ought to be 
dealt with in terms of peace? What would have been thought if, 
after the battle of Cannae, a Senator there had risen in his place and 
denounced every levy of the Roman people, every expenditure of 
its treasure, and every appeal to the old recollections and old glories? 
Sir, a Senator, himself learned far more than myself in such lore, tells 
me in a voice that I am glad is audible, that he would have been 
hurled from the Tarpeian rock. It is a grand commentary on the 
American Constitution that we permit these words to be uttered.' 

From the effects of this impassioned speech Mr. Breckin- 
ridge never recovered. 

The magnificent display of loyalty led members of Congress 
to misinterpret popular feeling and to commit the mistake of 
urging upon the administration an immediate move against 
the enemy in the field regardless of the state of discipline of 
the troops. Deference to the sensitiveness of Virginia had 
left unoccupied by Union soldiers the strategic point of 
Manassas Junction, for which the confederate government 
was, no doubt, profoundly grateful. When Virginia finally 
took her resolution, confederate troops were promptly de- 
spatched to this junction of railroad lines, and in due time an 

' Cong. Globe, Special Session, Thirty-seventh Congress, p. 378. The interrup- 
tion was by Senator Fessenden. 



42 A Political History of Slavery 

army was massed there under command of General Beauregard. 
At Winchester was General Joseph E. Johnston with a force 
of eleven thousand men, which could be moved rapidly to re- 
inforce the Manassas army. Confronting Johnston was a 
Union force of three-months men under General Patterson, 
who was instructed to hold the enemy or engage him. Against 
the force at Manassas General Scott was instructed to send 
the army concentrated in and around Washington. It moved 
forward under the immediate command of General Iryin^ 
McDowell, who had under him, Generals Tyler, Willam T. 
Sherman, Fitz-John Porter, David Hunter, Heintzelman and 
others who afterwards became conspicuous and successful 
leaders. Under Beauregard were Stonewall Jackson, Long- 
street, Ewell and J. E. B. Stuart — all able commanders. 
The battle of Bull Run, which was fought on Sunday, July 
21, was progressing favorably for the Union army, when at a 
certain stage a momentary confusion caused a regiment to 
give way, and this was followed by a retreat, and the retreat 
became a panic. The utmost demoralization prevailed even 
after the troops had entered the entrenchments of Washing- 
ton, although the enemy had not followed up the victory. 
Just before the battle began, General Joseph E. Johnston, 
who had eluded General Patterson, in command on the line 
of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, reinforced the confeder- 
ates and assumed the command. Even with this advantage 
the confederates were not of themselves successful. 

Both armies [says General Sherman] were fairly defeated, and, 
whichever had stood fast the other would have run. Though the 
North was overwhelmed with mortification and shame, the South 
really had not much to boast of, for in the three or four hours of 
fighting their organization was so broken up that they did not and 
could not follow our army, when it was known to be in a disgraceful 
and causeless flight/ 

"Our army," says General Johnston, "was more disorganized 
by victory than that of the United States by defeat." ' 

^Memoirs, vol. i., p. 210. '^Battles and Leaders, p. 252. 



The Bull Run Disaster 43 

Many members of Congress had been witnesses of the 
battle, and while they fled with precipitation, they met the 
emergency as did the ofificers of the army, the executive and 
the people, in a manly spirit. Needed war legislation was 
enacted, the three-months troops were sent home, and the 
three-years regiments were set energetically to work to be- 
come disciplined soldiers. There was just enough revealed to 
show that the movement upon Manassas was against General 
Scott's advice, and that it was made before the expiration of 
the service of the three-months regiments and to meet news- 
paper clamor.' The lesson served a useful purpose. 

The Bull Run defeat precipitated action on the delicate 
question of the relation of the slave to the war. To forestall 
any attempt to excite the fears of slaveholders in the border 
States, Mr. Crittenden introduced a resolution declaring : 

That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the 
country by the disunionists of the Southern States, now in arms 
against the constitutional government, and in arms around the 
capital; that in this national emergency Congress, banishing all feel- 
ings of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to 
the whole country; that this war is not waged on their part in any 
spirit of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, 
or purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or estab- 
lished institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the 
supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all 
the dignity, equality and the rights of the several States unim- 
paired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war 
ought to cease. 

The same resolution was introduced in the Senate by 
Andrew Johnson four days later, and led to an animated de- 
bate. In the House there were only two votes in the nega- 
tive; in the Senate there were four votes against it, cast by 
disunionists. The resolution expressed the purpose of the 

' See remarks of Mr. Richardson in the House, reporting a conversation be- 
tween General Scott and Mr. Lincoln in his presence. Cong. Globe, Special 
Session. 



44 A Political History of Slavery 

Republican party as declared in platforms and by the Presi- 
dent, and yet Mr. Sumner in the Senate and Owen Lovejoy 
and Thaddeus Stevens in the House declined to vote. The 
sole object of the administration and of the party responsible 
for it was to save the Union — save it without disturbing the 
domestic institutions of the States if permitted to do so. A 
few thought more of the overthrow of slavery — "the cause of 
all our woes " — than of the Union; indeed, they believed the 
Union with slavery undesirable. But this sentiment was 
entertained by a small class. The great mass of the Northern 
people, while opposed to slavery on principle, believed that 
the constitutional rights of the South should be respected and 
sustained. The aggressions of slavery — denial of the freedom 
of opinion and of the press and of the right of petition ; the 
extension of the system into free territory for political power 
— these rather than the sinfulness of human bondage consol- 
idated the political strength of the North. But rebellion 
might and did accomplish what the North could not — what an 
administration chosen by the Republican party never would 
have done in time of peace : it confiscated slave property when 
employed by a disloyal master to strike a blow at the govern- 
ment. The battle of Bull Run revealed the extent to which 
slaves were being employed to make secession successful. 
The logic of war called for the confiscation of the property in 
all such cases. In anticipation of the progress of events 
Senator Trumbull had already introduced a bill to authorize 
the confiscation of property used for insurrectionary purposes. 
After the defeat of the army under McDowell this bill was 
amended so as specifically to include slaves and passed, but 
not without vigorous opposition. Mr. Lincoln, fearing it 
might result in harm to the cause, signed it reluctantly. 

The session closed August 6th, after having provided ways 
and means in the most liberal manner for prosecuting the war. 
An increase of duties upon imports was voted, affecting 
chiefly brandy and other distilled spirits, wine and silks. 
Many articles on the free list, including tea and coffee, were 
subjected to taxation. It was believed that the changes 



Financial Legislation 45 

would insure a large increase of revenue from customs, but the 
attempt was made so to regulate the tariff as not to cripple 
domestic interests which were being stimulated into activity by 
the war. Provision was also made for a direct tax of twenty 
millions of dollars on the real estate of the country apportioned 
among the States and territories, and for an income tax of 
three per cent, on all incomes in excess of eight hundred dol- 
lars per annum, which was modified in several respects. In- 
comes derived from securities of the United States were taxed 
one and a half per cent. ; but on those derived from stocks, 
securities other than national and other property existing in 
the country owned by American citizens residing abroad, a 
tax of five per cent, was laid.' These taxes were notice to 
the creditors of the nation that loans and all obligations had a 
sound basis. The act under which they were levied was the 
foundation of the system of internal revenue, which was an 
essential part and "the crowning glory of Secretary Chase's 
policy, and its scope and boldness entitle him to rank with 
the great financiers of the world." '' Mr. Chase otherwise in- 
spired confidence at home by making his financial appeals 
directly to the public. A loan of two hundred and fifty mil- 
lions, and the issue of fifty millions of treasury notes, bearing 
interest, reissuable as often as they might return to the 
Treasury, were authorized by Congress. An increase in the 
consular representation of the United States was authorized, 
where the President should deem it advisable to prevent 
piracy — this power to cease with the re-establishment of 
peace. It was at first confidently expected that the war would 
end within a year, but as a people we learned to be patient, 
became accustomed to burdens and acquired the calmness of 
courage to look danger in the face. 

The motive that has its rise in partisanship in times of 

' Bolles, Financial Hist, of U. S., vol. iii., p. 17. 

" Twenty Years of Congress, vol. i., p. 434. The internal- revenue system was 
a drastic measure, but necessary as a war measure to sustain the credit of the 
United States. It was continued after the close of the war until the debt had been 
largely reduced. In 1S66 it appropriated sixty per cent, of the increase of wealth 
of the country. 



46 A Political History of Slavery 

national peril is indefensible. There is not a trace of patriotism 
or good citizenship in it. History must condemn it as mean 
and wholly mischievous. The spirit that a few members of 
Congress displayed in the special session quickened into life 
party feeling, which was stronger than love of country with a 
class in several of the States, — in New York, Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois and Iowa, — and the government henceforth had to deal 
with this as a force auxiliary to the armed confederacy. After 
Sumter party spirit disappeared, but it reappeared in the press 
and in conventions when mistakes in administration, insepara- 
ble from new and unlooked-for conditions, seemed to open the 
way for dissent. This opposition was either bold, as in the 
case of men of the type of Vallandigham, or covert, as in 
the case of men of the type of Voorhees and S. S, Cox, 
cloaking its purpose in a specious profession of the duty of 
maintaining the government, while always meaning to cripple 
it or deliver it bound to the armed enemy, as any compromise 
at this stage meant no less. This fact is indisputable, that the 
war for the government proceeded upon the proposition that the 
Constitution as it was, was ample in its guarantees for the rights 
of all sections of the Union, and that the defeat and submission 
of those who refused to abide by the will of the majority ex- 
pressed according to the legal forms, and who first drew the sword 
and forced war upon the country, were necessary to insure the 
existence of republican government upon this continent. 

Both national and State administrations had in the begin- 
ning promptly invited to places of confidence and responsi- 
bility men most conspicuous in opposition to the Republican 
party. Their acts had given point to the words of Douglas: 
"Whoever is not prepared to sacrifice party organizations and 
platforms on the altar of his country does not deserve the 
support and countenance of honest people." In the same 
catholic spirit the Ohio Republican Committee invited the 
Democratic to unite with it in a call for a non-partisan con- 
vention, and, notwithstanding the invitation was rejected,' it 

' The Democratic State convention nominated Hugh J. Jewett for Governor and 
John Scott Harrison for Lieutenant-Governor. The latter, who had supported 



The Ohio Union Party 47 

persisted in inviting all who were in favor of the unconditional 
preservation of the Union of the States to meet in convention 
to nominate a ticket. The Republican governor, deserving a 
re-nomination, gave place to David Tod, who had presided 
over the Baltimore convention when Mr. Douglas was nomi- 
nated ; while Benjamin Stanton, eminent in the party councils, 
accepted the nomination for Lieutenant-Governor from a sense 
of duty. The other places were divided between Democrats 
and Republicans. The platform was made up of the Critten- 
den resolution adopted at the special session of Congress, and 
another which, in the language of Joseph Holt, declared for 
the Union without conditions, "for its preservation at any and 
every cost of blood and treasure, against all its assailants, and 
against any and every compromise to be made under the guns 
of the enemy." 

While these loyal Southerners were bracing the nerves of 
Ohioans,' secessionists of Kentucky were entertaining Vallan- 
digham and applauding his scheme for the creation of a 
peace party. There were to be peace barbecues throughout 
Kentucky, and peace meetings in New Jersey and New York 
following an opening one in Louisville. But the citizens of 
that city knew that the secessionists did not mean union and 
a restoration of fraternal relations when they marched behind 
Vallandigham's white flag, and the meeting was a failure.' 
The popular reaction promised the revolutionists by their 
Northern allies was not realized, and they were left to new 

Bell and Everett, declined the nomination. Mr. Jewett yielded to party pressure 
and accepted. He had a son in the 23d Ohio regiment. 

'"Joseph Holt makes the best war speeches of any man in the land. They 
always brace my nerves and stir my heart when I read them. At camp Joe Holt, 
near Louisville, he said, ' Since the sword flamed over the portals of Paradise un- 
til now, it has been drawn in no holier cause than that in which you are engaged.' " 
—Diary of R. B. Hayes. Aug. gth, 1861, in camp in Virginia. MS. 

"^ Vallandigham and John A. Logan participated in a private conference held 
during the special session of Congress in July, when Mr. May was despatched to 
Richmond to ascertain on what terms the secessionists would consent to return to 
the Union. The reply was a refusal to return on any terms. The effect of this 
was to send Logan home to recruit a regiment for the Union army, and to cause 
Vallandigham to persevere in his alliance with secessionists. 



48 A Political History of Slavery 

devices. These facts show the drift of men, and the concentra- 
tion of human effort on one side to destroy, on the other to 
preserve the best government the world had yet seen. The 
Ohio Unionists in political action had but a single purpose at 
this time — the same that found expression in the arming for de- 
fence of the government after the firing upon Sumter. They 
showed that they were not only ready to spend their lives in 
defence of the Union, but to restore it to its former great- 
ness by measures of peace and conciliation whenever the time 
for them should come.' As Senator Wade was a member of 
the Committee on Resolutions and approved of the platform, 
the unity and right disposition of the Republicans of Ohio 
were unmistakable. 

On the other hand, we see a fraction of their political op- 
ponents in August, 1861, recommending the calling of a con- 
vention of States to treat with men in armed rebellion, and 
three years later declaring the war for the Union a failure. 
The effect of this course was to prolong the war by holding 
out to the insurgents the prospect of a great popular reaction 
favorable to them. 

There are practices in the game of politics, says Froude, 
"which the historian in the name of morality is bound to con- 
demn, which nevertheless in this false and confused world 
statesmen till the end of time will continue to repeat." * The 
moral of the story of the Hartford convention was unheeded, 

' Letter of Thomas Ewing (Lancaster, Sept. 7, 1861) to John J. Crittenden- 
MS. Mr. Ewing was jubilant over the success of the non-partisan movement 
in Ohio. " There is no taint of abolition or secession sympathy in the move- 
ment." A notable feature of the convention at Columbus was a great speech by 
Mr. Ewing, which, while vindicating Mr. Lincoln, contained interesting historical 
facts illustrative of his theme. He said that when President Jackson issued his 
l^roclamation against the nullifiers, he (Ewing) and twenty other Whigs went to 
him and told him they would stand by him. Lincoln deserved the same support 
now that was given to Jackson. From that time to the civil war a whole genera- 
tion had been educated in disunion doctrines in South Carolina and other Southern 
States, and in fdibustering schemes. Out of this disunion education and lawless- 
ness in the South grew secession, and the Southern States had been precipitated 
into civil war by minorities organized for that purpose. M. H., Cincinnati Com- 
viercial, Sept. 6th. '^History 0/ England, vol. vii., chap. iii. 



The Ohio Union Party 49 

and at a time when the responsibility of the government was 
infinitely more serious than during the second war with Great 
Britain — when the life of a government by the people was the 
stake — men basely pursued partisan ends. Boldly declaring 
that the Democratic party, having always been opposed to 
sectionalism, was in no way responsible for the war, they as- 
sumed the attitude of friends to the enemy — the attitude of 
covert resistance to the government. This declaration invited 
to an examination of the record. Slavery, which was confined 
to a section, had been made by the politicians of that section 
a political power to control the national government, and to 
that end they first obtained control, through the caucus sys- 
tem, of the Democratic party. The frauds of Kansas were 
committed by that party, and their fruit, the Lecompton con- 
stitution, was made a test of party fealty; the doctrine that 
the Constitution protected slavery in the common territories 
was made a test of Democracy. These things led to new 
party divisions — led politicians to disrupt the Democratic 
party when they lost control of the party machinery at 
Charleston — led them when defeated at the polls to attempt 
to dissolve the Union." When the acts of men are the sub- 
stantial cause of an effect, when the antecedents necessary 
to the production of a certain result are under their control, 
and have been set in motion by them, either with a view of 
bringing about that end, or with a knowledge that it would 
ensue, then the world holds them responsible,* 

David Tod was elected Governor of Ohio by a majority of 
over fifty-five thousand, notwithstanding the absence of the 
large quota of voters who had entered the army. Dickinson 

' This had been threatened before, but not carried into effect until 1 860-1. 
During the session of the Virginia Legislature in 1799, when the alien and 
sedition laws were under discussion, views of such a dangerous character were de- 
veloped as to move John Marshall to say : " To me it seems there are men who 
will hold power by any means rather than not hold it, and who would prefer a 
dissolution of the Union to the continuance of an administration not of their 
own party."— Letter to General Washington, Jan. 8, 1799, and first printed in the 
National Intelligence?- ]\xne 8, 1861. 

* Cf. Positive Causes in Politics, by George Cornewall Lewis. 



50 A Political History of Slavery 

for Attorney-General of the State of New York had a majority 
of over one hundred and seven thousand, and the New Eng. 
land States, Maryland, Iowa and Wisconsin also sustained 
the administration. The wave of Unionism even swept over 
California, carrying Leland Stanford into the Governor's chair 
by over twenty-three thousand majority, and giving the Re- 
publicans and Union Democrats control of the Legislature by 
an overwhelming vote. It was evident that the people of 
the North had resolutely set to work to restore the Union by 
sustaining the government in the enforcement of the laws. 
Their sons had volunteered for the military service from a 
sense of patriotic duty, and notwithstanding they had met 
with reverses in the field there was no abatement of resolu- 
tion. Therefore, when the President sent his first annual 
message to Congress on the 3d of December, he was not em- 
barrassed by any doubt as to the popular support his adminis- 
tration was to receive. It must have been with no ordinary 
feelings of satisfaction that he announced the adherence of 
most of the border slave States to the cause of the Union, 
the three important States of Maryland, Kentucky and Mis- 
souri, no one of which would promise a single soldier at first, 
having an aggregate of forty thousand in the Union armies. 




CHAPTER III 

THE TRENT AFFAIR — GENERAL FREMONT AND EMANCIPATION 
—WAYS AND MEANS 

JEFFERSON DAVIS, jubilant over the successful launch- 
ing of a new confederacy, over abundant harvests, over 
the increase in new branches of manufactures, over the 
glorious victories won by the confederate armies which had 
checked the invasion which "greed of gain and the unhallowed 
lust of power brought upon their soil," moves the Southern 
Congress to zealous effort in providing ways and means for the 
new government, and raises high the hopes of those who will- 
ingly severed old relations and took on new bonds. The world 
is invited to take notice that the separation is final, and that 
for the independence they had asserted the Southern people 
would accept no alternative.' Let us not look too closely into 
the measures, whether of strategy or force, by which this ap- 
parent unanimity had been brought about. When the Union- 
ists of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee protested against the 
course that swept them into secession against their will, and 
"placed power in the hands of those who were not only not 
chosen by the people, but about whose position they were not 
even consulted," their resistance was ended. They also went 
with their States, regretting the while the old government 
and the old flag.* 

' Annual message of Jefferson Davis, Nov. i8, 1861. 

* Pamphlet by D. C. Humphreys of Huntsville, Ala., 1861. "It is true we 
will fight under the flag of the Confederate States— and we '11 fight to the death, 
and the thought of defeat \n\l never enter our minds, though we may be 

51 



52 A Political History of Slavery 

The attentive reader will not fail to note the importance 
given to the questions of finance and foreign relations in this 
message of November i8th — ominous questions that never 
get settled to the satisfaction of these "freemen fighting for 
the right of self-government." We have seen how before 
separation they speculated on their great resources — and great 
they were without doubt — on the invincibility of King Cotton, 
before whom the nations directly would bow in humble submis- 
sion.' Believing this, Messrs. Toombs and Benjamin were 
promising peace before winter. But there were those who 
did not believe that cotton was king; who did believe that 
privateering and slavery would prevent recognition by foreign 
Powers, and that his "pocket nerve" was not the Yankee's 
most sensitive nerve." Surprised at the hesitation of England, 
the confederate government placed an embargo upon cotton to 
prevent it from leaving the country, in order that such a press- 
ure should be put upon the cotton-consuming countries of 
Europe as would result in an active intervention in the war to 
compel the United States to acknowledge the independence of 
the Confederacy." Cotton was the basis of the diplomacy of 
the new government ; upon its future delivery credit was asked 

exterminated — yet we would more cheerfully fight under that old banner, the 
memory and recollections of which will not fade away and die so long as history 
is read and gallant deeds are cherished." See also The Cradle of the Confeder- 
acy, pp. 496-528, and the Declaration of Grievances of the Unionists of East 
Tennessee, printed in the N'ational Intelligencer, July 4, 1861. " We are obliged, 
of course, here to favor the confederate cause. Any man who is at all suspected 
has a very unpleasant time of it." — Letter of a merchant of New Orleans, Na- 
tional Intelligencer, July 13, 1861. See also War Diary of a Union Woman in 
the South, The Century, Oct., 1889; order of Gen. Beauregard, June 9; file of 
Louisville yournal for August. 

' Speech of Gov. Hammond, March 4, 1858. " What would happen if no cot- 
ton was furnished for three years ? England would topple headlong and carry the 
whole civilized world with her." 

* Judge John A. Campbell to Judge B. R. Curtis.— r/^t- Century, Oct., 1889. 

^"The President and his advisers looked to the stringency of the English cot- 
ton market and the suspension of the manufactories to send up a ground swell 
from the English operatives that would compel recognition, and grudged every 
pound of cotton exported." — Jefferson Davis : A Memoir, by his wife, vol. ii., 
p. 160. 



Confederate Dependence on Cotton 53 

and obtained ; it was the chief commodity in all financial trans- 
actions between individuals in the States, and finally in the 
operations of the confederate treasury. Planters were called 
on to pledge a part of the crop to the government, and were 
required to take all risks of storage. They had early paid out 
money freely to buy arms and equip regiments, and when the 
pressure of their necessities became great they asked the gov- 
ernment to purchase their cotton and to issue treasury notes for 
it, or to advance money upon its hypothecated value. The 
Secretary of the Treasury declined the relief asked for, and re- 
ferred the planters to the banks. Capitalists abroad did not 
regard dependence on a single commodity as a safe basis for 
financial operations. The Confederate States, said the London 
Times, had no credit which would get them a sixpence in any 
part of the world. Yet money they must have, and cotton was 
their chief dependence. The blockade had not yet been made 
effectual and vessels slipped through. But to the great dis- 
appointment of the confederates no foreign nation stirred to 
raise the blockade. It would have been a high-handed viola- 
tion of international usage, and there was not the remotest 
chance, said a British journal,' that either France or England 
would feel justified for a moment in projecting such an act of 
decided and unwarrantable hostility against the United States. 
"If the blockade be ineffectual," said the Morning Post,"" 
"neutral commerce will comparatively suffer little injury; if 
effectual, the first principles of public law tell us we must obey 
with a good grace, however disagreeable the restriction may 
be for one great staple of British industry and British wealth. 
. . . No foreign power has the smallest right to interfere in the 
matter." The opening of the cotton trade would depend on 
the will and power of the Northern States. The recognition 
of the Confederate States would not raise the blockade, but 
render it more stringent than ever.' 

President Davis dwelt on the possibility of a revolution in 

' London Economist, Sept. 31st. 

" The Morning Post was the organ of Lord Pahnerston. 

2 Ibid. 



54 A Political History of Slavery 

the industrial system of the world, which might carry suffer- 
ing to other lands as well as to America. He said : 

Although it is true that the cotton supply from the Southern States 
could only be totally cut off by the subversion of our social system, 
yet it is plain that a long continuance of this blockade might, by a 
diversion of labor and investment of capital in other employments, 
so diminish the supply as to bring ruin upon all those interests of 
foreign countries which are dependent on that staple. For every 
laborer who is diverted from the culture of cotton in the South, per- 
haps four times as many elsewhere, who have found subsistence in 
the various employments growing out of its use, will be forced also 
to change their occupation. 

A fortnight later President Lincoln in his message presented 
reasons for the continued observance of the blockade better 
calculated to engage the attention of foreign Powers than 
those offered by Mr. Davis in favor of intervention. The pro- 
found solicitude which had attended our intercourse with 
foreign nations from the beginning of the war had been in- 
tensified by the seizure, on the 8th of November in the Bahama 
Channel, from the British mail steamship Trent, of James M. 
Mason and John Slidell, accredited agents of the Confederacy, 
by Captain Wilkes, commander of the man-of-war San Jacinto, 
and their incarceration in Fort Warren. The popular approval 
of this daring act was universal in the North. Captain Wilkes 
was the hero of the hour.' Greater than this feeling of grati- 
fication in the United States was the outburst of anger in Eng- 
land when the news reached that country. There was instant 
preparation for war, troops were despatched to Canada, and 
we were in imminent danger for weeks until, in compliance 
with the demand of the British government, the confederate 
envoys were surrendered. Secretary Seward saw the necessity 
of this course from the beginning. As Captain Wilkes had 
acted without any instructions from the government, the sub- 

' A resolution of thanks, adopted with unanimity, marked the approval of Con- 
gress. Public ovations in Boston and elsewhere followed, and Everett and other 
orators of distinction defended the legality of the seizure. 



The Trent Affair 55 

ject was free from embarrassment. Even more fortunate was 
it that the British demand was a recognition of the rightful- 
ness of the contention of our government in former con- 
troversies with that government. In his answer, therefore, 
Mr. Seward did not fail to vindicate the consistency of his 
own country. 

If I decide this case in favor of my own government [said he], I 
must disavow its most cherished principles, and reverse and forever 
abandon its essential policy. The country cannot afford the sacri- 
fice. If I maintain those principles and adhere to that policy, I 
must surrender the case itself. It will be seen, therefore, that this 
government could not deny the justice of the claim presented to 
us, upon its merits. We are asked to do to the British nation just 
what we have always insisted all nations ought to do to us.' 

The moral victory was ours, which reconciled the President 
and the people to the surrender of the obnoxious envoys. 

This conclusion was not reached until the closing days of 
the year, and without telegraphic communication, it was the 
17th of January before Mr. Adams could send this word of 
comfort, "The result is in the highest degree satisfactory." 
We were for a brief while relieved from the menace of foreign 
intervention. But it was an imminent danger when Mr. Lin- 
coln took notice of Mr. Davis's prophecy of a possible revolu- 
tion in the industrial system of the world, and in a few 
sentences showed that relief would come most speedily and 
surely by sustaining the Union cause. 

If it were just to suppose [said he], as the insurgents have seemed 
to assume, that foreign nations in this case, discarding all moral, 
social and treaty obligations, would act solely and selfishly for the 
most speedy restoration of commerce, including especially the ac- 
quisition of cotton, those nations appear, as yet, not to have seen 
their way to their object more directly, or clearly, through the de- 
struction than through the preservation of the Union. If we could 

■ Mr. Seward to Lord Lyons, Dec. 26, i36l. Diplomatic Hist, of the War for 
the Union, p. 307. 



56 A Political History of Slavery 

dare to believe that foreign nations are actuated by no higher prin- 
ciple than this, I am quite sure a sound argument could be made 
to show them that they can reach their aim more readily and easily 
by aiding to crush this rebellion than by giving encouragement to it. 

It was the Union which made as well our foreign as our do- 
mestic commerce, and it was the effort for disunion which pro- 
duced the existing difficulty. 

The danger would lessen as rapidly as the authority of the 
Union should be restored at the ports on the seaboard. The 
Chesapeake was secure. Successful naval expeditions had re- 
sulted in the capture of Hatteras, Port Royal, Tybee Island 
and Ship Island. Other more extensive operations to be 
undertaken soon would bring more important results. 

The tension in our relations to the allied governments of 
England and France quickened the curiosity of foreign states- 
men and of the foreign press as to the real meaning of the 
sympathy which the Emperor of Russia had openly shown to 
the American Republic, and it was not unlikely that the mys- 
tery with which the imagination surrounded this served us a 
good turn when the Emperor of the French proposed to Lord 
Palmerston to recognize the Southern Confederacy. At any 
rate the British government prudently declined. The Em- 
peror might have taken an active part with us if his old ene- 
mies had pressed us unfairly. The friendly Gortschakoff letter 
contained a timely hint, calculated to disconcert any conspiring 
against us. The American nation, it said, is an element "es- 
sential to the universal political equilibrium," and further 
indicated that there is a natural community of interests and of 
sympathies between the Empire and the Republic. Sir Bulwer 
Lytton, speaking for Tory England and the French usurper, 
declared that the destruction of our Union was necessary in 
order to preserve the political equilibrium of Europe. But 
Alexander's policy was to preserve the American Union as a 
counterbalance to those European Powers which were allied to 
check the progress of his empire in the East. 

The President could see no good reason for longer refusing 



Fremont in Missouri 57 

to recognize the independence of Hayti and Liberia, and he 
recommended an appropriation for the salary of a charge 
d'affaires to each of those countries. The trade of Hayti was 
more valuable than that of Japan, which we had gone to con- 
siderable pains to cultivate. It was remarked that the inhabi- 
tants were only slightly darker than the Japanese visitors who 
so excited American enthusiasm, and that commercial and 
diplomatic relations could be established with them without 
such close social intimacy as that with which we cultivated our 
Japanese relations.' The American stomach was tender on 
this subject, but not nice enough to refuse a good trade on 
account of color, either at home or abroad. 

A sharp division had taken place in the Union ranks on the 
slavery question, causing great embarrassment to the adminis- 
tration. In July, General Fremont had been placed in com- 
mand of the army of the Mississippi with headquarters at St. 
Louis. His great personal popularity gave new life to volun- 
teering. Hundreds of young men joined the army and re- 
quested to be permitted to serve under Fremont. Newly 
organized regiments in Ohio were sent to Missouri as the 
country where military glory would be most surely and 
speedily won. If Fremont could have justified this outpour- 
ing of popular enthusiasm by a wise and successful adminis- 
tration of military affairs and by victories over the enemy, his 
fortune would have been secure. But the death of the able 
General Lyon in the battle at Wilson's Creek on the loth of 
August," and the surrender of a force of 2640 Union men 
under Colonel Mulligan at Lexington,^ after days of heroic 

' Cincinnati Gazette. It should be borne in mind that at this period Japan had 
not entered on the wonderful career which has latterly given it great prestige. 

''■ The Union force was outnumbered. General Lyon, failing to receive the re- 
inforcements he had asked for, was yet constrained to fight to save the State from 
falling into the hands of the confederate generals McCuUoch and Price. Their 
progress was checked, but at the sacrifice of the most capable Union general in 
Missouri. 

^General Price brought against Colonel Mulligan a force of over 20,000 men. 
He exacted of the Union prisoners an oath not to serve against the Confederacy 
during the war. 



58 A Political History of Slavery 

resistance, destroyed Fremont's military prestige in large 
measure; lack of business capacity and of a ready grasp of 
details unfitted him for the command in Missouri. It was 
reported that it was difficult to get admittance to his head- 
quarters, and that he was surrounded by foreigners who did 
not understand the American character and customs. While 
his manner was natural and unostentatious, he was a silent, 
reticent, meditative man. This singular reserve and undemon- 
strative deportment were not popular qualities, but his soldiers 
always greeted him enthusiastically. His fame created an army 
for the West when most needed, and where there was a dearth 
of leaders. He quarrelled with Colonel Frank P. Blair, and 
thus incurred a powerful opposition. Another incident is of 
greater importance. 

The disorganized condition of the State, the helplessness of 
the civil authority, and the insecurity of life and property, led 
Fremont to issue a proclamation, the 31st of August, extend- 
ing martial law throughout the State of Missouri. This was 
justified by the condition of affairs. But the same proclama- 
tion confiscated to the public use the property of persons 
found in arms against the government, and declared their 
slaves freemen. Here he trenched upon the province of po- 
litical policy, and meddled with that which belonged to the 
executive. It was a reckless act that but for the prudence 
and wisdom of the President might have proved destructive 
of the Union cause, as it threatened to alienate the Unionists 
of Kentucky and the conservatives of the North. Mr. Blaine 
said truly that, "If the Democratic party as a whole had in 
the autumn of the year 1861 taken the ground which a con- 
siderable section of it assumed, it would have been impossible 
to conduct the war for the Union successfully." ' The Presi- 
dent caused the proclamation to be modified, so far as it re- 
lated to the manumission of slaves, so as to make it conform 
to the confiscation act of Congress. General Anderson tele- 
graphed the President that on receipt of the news that General 
Fremont had issued deeds of manumission, a whole company 

' Twenty Years of Congress, vol. i., p. 354. 



Fremont in Missouri 59 

of Kentucky volunteers threw down their arms and disbanded. 
"I think to lose Kentucky," wrote Mr. Lincoln, "is to lose 
the whole game. Kentucky gone we cannot hold Missouri, 
nor, as I think, Maryland. . . . We would as well con- 
sent to separation at once, including the surrender of this 
capital." ' The purpose of the administration not to inter- 
fere with slavery was clearly indicated some months earlier, 
when the Secretary of War declined to approve General 
Butler's doctrine that the slaves of rebels should be treated 
as "contraband of war," and General Fremont ought to have 
respected that determination. 

There was a strong popular approval of Fremont's act in 
the North which was not confined to anti-slavery men. The 
biographer of Mr, Douglas, reflecting the sentiments of many 
of the followers of that statesman, expressed the opinion that 
it would have been better to sustain Fremont. "Backward 
steps never lead to good results."' "It is time," declared 
the Boston Post, approving the policy of the proclamation, 
"that the rebels understood that, by their defiance and viola- 
tion of all law, they have struck the first blow to that institu- 
tion which the political philosophy of Stephens and the sword 
of Davis would support." 

Was negro property more sacred than other property? was 
asked by a defender ' of the rightfulness of Fremont's procla- 
mation. The country was at war and the negro question 
should be treated from the standpoint of war. The govern- 
ment had nothing to do with slavery except in the exercise of 
its rights of war. "Every negro man taken from the confed- 
erates was a loss more felt by them than the death of a white 
soldier in battle." The policy of the government was to force 
this class to remain within the enemy's lines. When Halleck 
succeeded to the command in Missouri he expelled the blacKs 
from his camps on the mean and false charge that they were 
spies, thus forcing them into the hands of the enemy with all 
of the information they had acquired within our lines, and 

' Nicolay and Hay, vol. iv., p. 422. 

* Chicago PiJi-/. 2 Cincinnati Gazette. 



6o A Political History of Slavery 

depriving our army of their help as guides. ' ' The cry of aboli- 
tionism has acquired a meaning in this war. It is the cry of 
those who would cripple the government in its war against 
rebellion; it is the watchword of the disloyal." ' 

This popular sentiment — that it was time the war should be 
conducted on the principle of hitting the enemy a blow when- 
ever opportunity offered ; that the slaveholder in arms should 
be deprived of the help of his slave property as well as of the 
use of his other property — penetrated the War Department 
and influenced Secretary Cameron to make an official utterance 
on the vexed subject in his annual report. He declared that 
it was as clearly a right of the government to arm slaves, when 
it should become necessary, as it was to use gunpowder taken 
from the enemy. Whether it was expedient to do so was 
purely a military question. Self-preservation, the highest 
duty of a government as of individuals, demanded that they 
should be disposed of or employed in the most effective man- 
ner that would tend most speedily to suppress the insurrection 
and to restore the authority of the government. 

If it shall be found that the men who have been held by the rebels 
as slaves are capable of bearing arms and performing efficient mili- 
tary service, it is the right and may become the duty of the gov- 
ernment to arm and equip them, and employ their services against 
the rebels, under proper military regulations, discipline and com- 
mand. 

Even as Fremont had acted on his sole responsibility in 
Missouri, so the Secretary of War had written the above with- 
out consulting the President, and therein he had committed a 
technical impropriety. The question, while purely a military 
one rightly considered, nevertheless in the conditions then 
existing had a political phase which the President was bound 
to consider. Perhaps a feeling of pique sharpened the eye of 
the President (for he was human) and enabled him to discover 
danger in a clear statement of the right and power of the gov- 
ernment, when there was an avoidance of all commitment. 

' Cincinnati Gazette. 



The Confiscation of Slaves 6i 

Be that as it may, the President required Mr, Cameron to call 
in the printed copies which had been sent in the mail to post- 
masters, to cancel the objectionable passage and to substitute 
therefor the mild interrogatories which will be found in the 
official report. 

The removal of Fremont from the command in Missouri 
followed early in November, and was not calculated to placate 
the radical anti-slavery men. The dissatisfaction with the 
attitude of the administration toward the slavery question 
found expression soon after Congress met in the introduction 
of numerous resolutions declaring that the slaves of those 
armed against the Union ought to be made free. When Mr. 
Holman of Indiana on the 4th of December offered a resolu- 
tion, solemnly reaffirming the principles of the Crittenden 
resolution, which had been adopted at the first session of the 
Thirty-seventh Congress by an almost unanimous vote, Thad- 
deus Stevens moved to lay the resolution on the table, and 
the motion prevailed. Such prominent Republicans as Mr. 
Dawes of Massachusetts, and Mr. Shellabarger of Ohio voted 
with the Democrats in the negative. The President avoided 
a discussion of the delicate subject, but in a reference to the 
confiscation act made this cautionary remark: "We should 
not be in haste to determine that radical and extreme meas- 
ures, which may reach the loyal as well as the disloyal, are 
indispensable." An independent journal complained that the 
President had evaded the rugged issue, and left the everlasting 
slavery question still adrift in the terrible rapids of the Civil 
War, with the roar of a political Niagara nigh,' The President, 
however, took thought of the condition of a class of persons 
liberated under the confiscation act or by similar State acts, 
and suggested the acquiring of territory for the purpose of 
colonizing them. Keeping in view the wishes of border State 
men, he also suggested that it might be well to consider 
whether the free colored people could not, so far as individuals 
might desire, be included in such colonization. 

The agitation begun in Congress, and promoted by a portion 

' Cincinnati Commercial, Dec, 4, 1861. 



62 A Political History of Slavery 

of the press, caused grave apprehensions of divisions in the 
Union ranks. Papers known to have friendly relations to 
members of the administration endeavored to check the ten- 
dency to urge extreme measures. The New York Times ex- 
pressed the hope that Congress would recognize the paramount 
importance of harmony in the public counsels, and repress 
whatever rash attempts might be made, in the spirit of over- 
zealous partisanship, to override and destroy it, "The time 
for the safe and successful treatment of the slavery question, 
in its broadest relations, has not yet come. No public neces- 
sity yet requires it." ' 

A war for the Union [said the conservative National Intelligencer] 
may, as one of its possible incidents, conduct to emancipation, in 
■part or in whole. A war for emancipation would, according to all the 
probabilities that occur to our minds, result only in the disappoint- 
ment of the hopes rested on this basis, while at the same time prov- 
ing fatal to the hopes of those who, with the President, "keep the 
integrity of the Union prominent as the primary object of this 
contest." ^ 

To strike at slavery through a general act of emancipation 
or a proclamation of martial law, in the opinion of the New 
York Evening Post, would scarcely effect the object sought, 
while either or both would be offensive to large numbers of 
loyal men, both in the border and cotton States, and might 
protract our troubles. "But Congress has power to confiscate 
the property of rebels. Under this it may confiscate whatever 
is held as property under the laws of the States; and it may 
appoint commissioners of forfeiture in each State for the dis- 
tribution of that property in such a manner as may seem 
best." ' The Journal of Commerce, commenting on this view, 
said: 

On this ground, whatever differences of opinion there may be 
among us as to the abstract question connected with slavery, the 
North can be united. The slave property of rebels is unquestiona- 

' December 5th. " December 7th. ^ December 5th. 



The Confiscation of Slaves 63 

bly the subject of confiscation zs much as their horses or their cot- 
ton. No one desires confiscated slaves to be returned to slavery. 
The government should make provision for that; and if in the end 
it shall be that every slave in the rebellious States has acquired free- 
dom in this manner, no reasonable man, North or South, can object 
to the effects of the administration of constitutional law.' 

"Proclamations of emancipation" — said the Cincinnati 
Commercial {2. paper which was understood to speak for the 
Secretary of the Treasury) — "and the arming of the negroes 
would only embitter and barbarize the war, without advancing 
one step towards its conclusion." 

In anticipation of the conflict of opinion and with a view of 
keeping control of the subject, on the 5th of December Sena- 
tor Trumbull formally introduced a bill, of which he had given 
previous notice, providing for the confiscation of the property 
of rebels and giving freedom to the persons they held in 
slavery, this forfeiture to be enforced against property in the 
rebellious districts through the military power, and against 
property in the other portions of the United Stiites in which the 
judicial power was not obstructed by the rebellion through the 
courts. It made it the duty of the President to provide for 
the colonization of such of the freedmen as might be willing to 
go in some tropical country, where they might have the pro- 
tection of the government and be secured in all the rights and 
privileges of freemen. Mr. Trumbull proceeded to explain the 
provisions of his bill in a notable speech which proved the be- 
ginning of a debate which attracted the attention of the country 
for months, and in which a wide diversity of opinion was dis- 
played. He set the limitations of military power in time of 
war, thus inviting those inside and outside of the administra- 
tion who had advanced the doctrine that it was superior to the 
civil power, or, that in such times necessity was higher than and 
above the Constitution, to defend their position. "Necessity 
is the plea of tyrants, and if our Constitution ceases to operate 
the moment a person charged with its observance thinks there 

' December 6th. 



64 A Political History of Slavery 

is a necessity to violate it, it is of little value." Or, in the 
quaint language of the time of Elizabeth, "Necessity is one 
of the most dangerous pilots that can take helm in hand, for 
where necessity rules, election and consent can take no place." ' 
Senator Trumbull did not admit the necessity, but held that 
under our Constitution the military is as much subject to the 
control of the civil power in war as in peace. "I warn my 
countrymen," added he, "who stand ready to tolerate almost 
any act done in good faith for the suppression of the rebellion, 
not to sanction usurpations of power which may hereafter be- 
come precedents for the destruction of constitutional liberty." 
More will be heard of this later on. Meanwhile arrests of 
civilians by order of the Secretary of State and censorship of 
the press," are causing apprehension lest in the effort to put 
down a formidable rebellion there should be. a dangerous in- 
vasion of personal liberty and freedom of opinion. 

In the House Mr. Gurley of Ohio also introduced a bill to 
confiscate the property of rebels, to liberate their slaves, and 
to employ or colonize the same ; but this, the author was 
informed by Mr. Gurley, was done after a conference with 
the President. Among other things it set apart Florida for 
the freedmen, who were to be apprenticed under agents of the 
government, and to receive reasonable wages, until capable of 
becoming their own masters, when they were to be permitted 
to work for whom they pleased and go where they pleased. 
The New York Tribune commended the bill, which, it de- 
clared, was drawn with "remarkable precision, clearness and 
force," and was as well calculated as any legislative measure 
could be to effect the end in view. 

' Walsingham to Lord Burghley, Aug. 20, 1581. 

^ December 5th, in the House, Mr. Gurley offered the following resolution : 
" Resolved, That the Judiciary Committee be requested to inquire if a telegraphic 
censorship of the press has been established in this city ; if so, by whose authority, 
and by whom it is now controlled ; to report if such censorship has not been used 
to restrain a wholesome political criticism and discussion, while its professed and 
laudable object has been to withhold from the enemy important information in 
reference to the movements of the army." The correspondents of the press in 
Washington were much annoyed by the lack of an intelligent discrimination on the 
part of the person scrutinizing their despatches. 



Conditions in East Tennessee 65 

Meanwhile an event of vast commercial importance had oc- 
curred almost unheeded, so completely did the war overshadow 
every other human interest. Telegraphic communication with 
the then far-away Pacific coast was brought to a successful 
completion in October, and the lines were made a part of the 
system of the Western Union Telegraph Company. When a 
message was flashed through the Atlantic cable, cities were 
illuminated and there were great public demonstrations; but 
the binding together of the Atlantic and the Pacific, a work of 
almost equal importance, attracted no special attention, save 
from the man of wit who, when Salt Lake was reached Oc- 
tober 1 8th, remarked: "We may now fairly be considered in 
daily communication with the Saints, who, it is gratifying to 
be assured, are, as their polygamous inclinations and cus- 
toms would lead us to suppose, unanimously in favor of the 
Union." 

To the recommendation of the President, as a military 
measure, that Congress provide for the construction of a rail- 
road as speedily as possible from Lexington, or Nicholasville, 
to the Cumberland Gap, or from Lebanon in the direction of 
Knoxville, to connect the loyal regions of east Tennessee and 
western North Carolina with Kentucky, the newspaper critic 
objected that there was good reason to believe that the war 
would be over before the road could be built, and that as there 
was already a road between Louisville and Nashville, it would 
be well to open it before building another. Subsequent events 
vindicated the wisdom of the recommendation. Properly 
equipped and with adequate means of transportation an army 
could have penetrated into Tennessee by way of Cumberland 
Ford, as suggested by General George H. Thomas, occupied 
Knoxville, and seized the Tennessee & Virginia Railroad, the 
great military artery of the Confederacy. General Thomas's 
plan, which he was doing all in his power to carry out, had in 
view the destruction of the railroad bridges for some distance 
east and west from Knoxville, "and then to turn upon Zolli- 
coffer while in the passes of the Cumberland Mountains, and 
by getting between him and his supplies, effect the capture or 



66 A Political History of Slavery 

dispersion of his army," ' Possession of the Tennessee & Vir- 
ginia Railroad and of Chattanooga would have simplified the 
problem before the administration. Both the President and 
General McClellan urged upon the commanders in Kentucky 
an early advance into east Tennessee. 

The inhabitants of east Tennessee were treated by the 
confederates with severity. Colonel Wood, commanding at 
Knoxville, declared that the demeanor of the citizens was 
submissive, but that they were hostile to the confederate 
government. Judge Patterson, the son-in-law of Andrew 
Johnson, Colonel Pickens and others of the wealthy class 
were made prisoners and their fate remained uncertain for 
some time. Colonel Wood held them to be responsible for 
the "rebellion." "They really deserved the gallows, and if 
consistent with the laws, ought speedily to receive their de- 
serts. But there is such a gentle spirit of conciliation in the 
South, that I have no idea that one of them will receive such 
a sentence at the hands of any jury empanelled to try them." 

Patterson and his compatriots were sent to Tuscaloosa to 
jail by order of Mr. Benjamin, Secretary of War, who also 
directed that the bridge-burners be tried summarily by drum- 
head court-martial, and, on conviction, hanged on the spot. 
But despite all efforts at repression the hearts of the Tennes- 
seeans beat faithfully for the Union. ^ They slept in mountain 
fastnesses and, a few months later, gathering in force, made 
armed resistance to the enemy. 

General Buell, who succeeded General Sherman as com- 

' Van Home's History of the Army of the Cumberland, vol, i., p, 37. See also 
Life of George H. Thomas, by Piatt and Boynton, chap, v. The plan is disap- 
proved by Ropes. " The same reasons vi^hich would make an invasion of east 
Tennessee, from Louisville or Cincinnati as a base, a difficult matter, would also 
make its retention by the federals a difficult matter." P. 193. 

^ " The health of the kangaroo who hops around among his children and 
flatterers in the White House at Washington, was drunk by ladies at a fashionable 
hotel in Knoxville during the past week. Within five miles of this place there are 
known to be many, very many ardent Lincolnites. I have heard it said that the 
secessionists of this place feared Brownlow while the Unionists succumbed to 
military power. This is not altogether true, perhaps, but there are many Unionists 
everywhere in this portion of the State." — Cor. Memphis Appeal, Feb. 4, 1862, 



Conditions in East Tennessee 67 

mander of the Department of the Ohio, after his force had 
been augmented, organized and properly disciplined, ex- 
pressed doubt of the wisdom of the east Tennessee project as 
an unconditional measure. 

As earnestly as I wish to accomplish it my judgment has from the 
first been decidedly against it, if it should render at all doubtful the 
success of a movement against the great power of the rebellion in the 
West, which is mainly arrayed on the line from Columbus to Bow- 
ling Green, and can speedily be concentrated at any point of that 
line which is attacked singly.' 

General Buell projected a movement up the Tennessee and 
Cumberland rivers to compel the evacuation of Bowling 
Green, and invited the cooperation of General Halleck, who 
was now in charge of the Department of the Missouri. In 
time that general approved the plan and carried it into execu- 
tion, as we shall see later. A tone of dissatisfaction with the 
tardiness of military movements is common to the press of 
both sides during the closing days of 1861. While the battle 
of Belmont, fought on the 7th of November, was sanguinary 
and closed without apparent advantage to either of the bel- 
ligerents, it proved useful to the North in showing that volun- 
teers could behave with coolness and intrepidity under fire 
when led by a real soldier.* It increased rather than lessened 
the fault-finding. "The government must now do one of 
two things," said a Northern critic, —"make peace or war." 

The Richmond W/iig had hoped that the eVan of the Southern 
volunteers unrestrained, simply guided by able generals, would 
have planted their banners before frost in the heart of the 
enemy's country and conquered an honorable peace. But in- 
stead, it beheld the United States having dominion over the 

' Ropes, pp. 206 and 213. This able author gives a very clear analysis of the 
situation. 

* " The national troops acquired a confidence in themselves at Belmont that did 
not desert them through the war." — Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, vol. i., p. 
280. General Grant says that the objects for which the battle was fought were 
fully accomplished : it prevented troops from being detached from Columbus, and 
saved Colonel Oglesby and his three thousand men. 



68 A Political History of Slavery 

sea with power to assail the Confederacy at almost innumerable 
points, to plunder the coasts, to penetrate the rivers, and to 
attack at will any point on an extended frontier. They were 
supreme in Chesapeake Bay; they commanded the Potomac, 
and they had possession of Maryland, northwestern Virginia 
and Kentucky, and were contending for Missouri. 

These advantages counted for little with the impatient 
North so long as the Army of the Potomac remained inactive 
in the presence of an inferior enemy. Why should one 
hundred and eighty-five thousand men, well equipped, or- 
ganized and drilled, be subjected to the diseases and de- 
moralization incident to camp life, instead of being permitted 
to fight if there were capable officers to lead them? The 
roads were in good condition and the enemy lay at con- 
venient distance. The soldiers had acquired the habits of 
discipline and were drilled so as to act effectually and in- 
telligently at the word of command. Many of them had 
been under fire. In all of these requisites they were equal to 
the confederate soldiers, whom they greatly outnumbered. 
There was a solemn fact embodied in the sarcastic remark of 
an inferior ofificer that the Army of the Potomac was trying 
the exhaustion process, not on the enemy but the Treasury. 
Amidst the general depression there was one source of satis- 
faction — the management of the Treasury Department. This, 
at least, was proving equal to the magnitude of the work the 
government had in hand. The triumph of Secretary Chase 
over every embarrassment and difficulty was signal and endur- 
ing. He was spoken of as the Atlas of the government, and 
the opinion was expressed that had our finances been as bun- 
glingly managed as our military affairs the cause would have 
been inevitably lost. An ignoble retreat from Wall Street 
would have been far worse than the stampede at Bull Run, 
bad as that was. 

The great element of power in war is money. This truth 
Secretary Chase understood, and he had devoted his great 
abilities with patriotic singleness of purpose to supplying the 
government with the means of carrying on its stupendous 



Chase's Success with Treasury 69 

undertaking. If there was criminal supineness and wasteful- 
ness, it was outside of his department and beyond his control. 
Under authority of Congress he could call for a national loan 
of one hundred millions of dollars in three-year bonds or 
treasury notes bearing 7.30 per cent, interest and convertible 
before maturity into six per cent, twenty-year bonds; could 
make a loan in Europe or the United States, in his discretion, 
for a like amount payable twenty years after date, and bearing 
interest not exceeding seven per cent. ; could issue treasury 
notes bearing an interest of 3.65 per cent, and convertible into 
three-year 7.30 bonds; and could issue demand notes, receiv- 
able for all public dues, to be used as coin in payments and 
exchanges — these last two descriptions to be limited to an 
aggregate of fifty millions of dollars, and to be of denomina- 
tions less than fifty and not less than five dollars. A further 
authority was conferred to issue treasury notes to the amount 
of twenty millions of dollars, bearing six per cent, interest and 
payable not over twelve months from date. 

The Secretary invited a conference with the bankers of the 
three leading commercial cities of the seaboard, and arranged 
with them to advance the amounts needed for disbursements 
in the form of loans for three-year 7.30 bonds, to be reim- 
bursed, as far as practicable, from the proceeds of similar 
bonds subscribed for by the people through the agents of the 
national loan. Meanwhile, the Secretary issued to a limited 
extent, in aid of these advances, notes of smaller denomina- 
tions than fifty dollars payable on demand. By this plan 
he hoped the capital of the banking institutions and the capital 
of the people might be so combined with the credit of the 
government, in the proper provision for the necessary ex- 
penditures, as to give efficiency to administrative action, 
whether civil or military, and adequate support to public 
credit. The banking institutions subscribed at once a loan 
of fifty millions of dollars, and agreed to subscribe two addi- 
tional loans of fifty millions each. When the second loan was 
subscribed, only about half of the amount of the first loan had 
been realized from the popular subscriptions, which in the 



70 A Political History of Slavery 

brief space of time was all that could reasonably be expected. 
For the third loan, which was negotiated on the i6th of No- 
vember, the Secretary agreed to issue to the banks fifty mil- 
lions of dollars in six per cent, bonds at a rate equivalent to 
par for the bonds bearing seven per cent, interest, the bankers 
agreeing to make a fourth loan, if practicable. The Secretary 
expressed his gratification in warm terms. While the action 
of the banking institutions merited high eulogium, the prompt 
patriotism with which citizens of moderate means and working 
men and working women had brought their individual offerings 
to the service of their country commanded even warmer praise. 
It was with pardonable pride that the bankers in the following 
year referred to their action "in the most critical and eventful 
period known in the history of the country," when they un- 
iiesitatingly placed more than their entire capital at the com- 
mand of the government, almost without hope of profit, and 
with ruin staring them in the face in the event of loss. They 
believed, and justly believed, that "they did much to save the 
government from being overthrown and the country from 
being dismembered." ' 

At the first session of the Thirty-seventh Congress an act 
had been passed suspending the sub-treasury law so far as to 
permit the Secretary of the Treasury to deposit any money 
obtained from loans in such solvent specie-paying banks as he 
might select, and such money might be withdrawn for re- 
deposit, or for the payment of public dues under the direction 
of the Secretary. The bank committee believed this act would 
justify a closer relation between the associated banks and the 
government, and accordingly it was at once proposed to the 
Secretary that he should suspend the operations of the sub- 
treasury act (which required that nothing but coin should be 
accepted for any obligations due to the government) in respect 
to these transactions, and, following the course of commercial 
business, that he should draw checks upon some one bank in 

1 Report of the Loan Committee of the Associated Banks, p. II. The bank cap- 
ital of Boston, New York and Philadelphia at this time operating with the 
government aggregated $120,000,000. BoUes, p. 24. 



Chase's Success with Treasury 71 

each city representing the association, in small sums, as re- 
quired, in disbursing the money thus advanced. In other 
words, the banks would thus become government depositories 
and the Secretary of the Treasury or the United States 
Treasurer like an ordinary customer would pay the creditors 
of the government by check on these banks, 

which checks would be paid in State-bank notes then redeemable 
on demand in gold, or in the ordinary course of business. To a 
large extent they would pass through the New York clearing-house 
and the clearing-houses of other cities, and be settled and cancelled 
by offset, without drawing large amounts of specie.' 

If the banks were to maintain specie payments, with 
$63,165,039 in coin, in a time of war, this seemed to be the 
only practicable way in which it could be done. 

To draw from the banks in coin the large sums involved in these 
loans [said Mr. Geo. S. Coe of the American Exchange Bank — 
very high authority], and to transfer them to the Treasury, thence 
to be widely scattered over the country at a moment when war had 
excited fear and distrust, was to be pulling out continually the foun- 
dations upon which the whole structure rested. And inasmuch as 
this money was loaned to the government there appeared to the 
committee no reason why it should not be drawn by checks in favor 
of government contractors and creditors who would require to ex- 
change them for other values in commerce and trade through the 
process of the clearing-house.'^ 

Mr. Chase did not believe the suspension act gave to the 
Secretary any such authority, and he refused to entertain the 
proposition. Being a hard-money Democrat, he was technical 
in construing his powers, and distrustful of banking institu- 
tions operating under State charters. In his official connection 
with the Lafayette Bank and as Governor of Ohio he had had ex- 
perience with solvent and insolvent institutions during financial 
panics, and therefore in a time when the foundations of all 

' Statement of Mr. E. G. Spaulding, who drafted the bill to suspend the sub- 
treasury law, as quoted by BoUes, p. 27. ^ Ibid., p. 27. 



72 A Political History of Slavery 

American institutions seemed insecure, and as he was charged 
with greater responsibilities than any of his predecessors, he 
was bound to scrutinize his own authority in the common in- 
terest, and to err, as err he might, on what he believed to be 
the side of safety. When pressed by the committee to adopt 
their plan for transacting the public business, he remarked : 
"You ask me to borrow the credit of local banks in the form 
of circulation. I prefer to put the credit of the people into 
notes and use them as money." ' 

This conversation was in the presence of the Finance Com- 
mittee of the two Houses, and we get this further light on the 
New York proposition from Mr. Sherman, who was a member 
of the Senate Committee. He says that the banks proposed 
that the war should be carried on upon the basis of the paper 
money of the banks, by "legalizing the suspension of specie 
payments, and that the government should issue no paper 
except upon an interest of six per cent, or higher if the money 
markets of the world demanded more." " This was the plan 
substantially adopted in the War of 1812 which proved so 
fatal — "a plan of carrying on the operations of this great gov- 
ernment," added Mr. Sherman, "by an association of banks 
over which we had no control, and which could issue money 
without limit so far as our laws affected it." 

Disappointed in the rejection of their plan, the banks did 
not look with favor on the demand notes which the necessities 
of the government compelled the Secretary of the Treasury 
to issue. They refused to receive them in the ordinary 
course of business, and the proposition to accept them as 
a special deposit discredited them with their customers. Of 
course as the banks were the government's principal source 
of supply for coin, they controlled the convertibility of the 
demand notes, and their refusal to accept them made them 
for the time irredeemable.' On the other hand, the bank 

' Letter to J. T. Trowbridge printed in Warden's Chase, p. 388. 
* Speeches by John Sherman. 

2" The very first week that they were issued we found it quite impossible to 
take them into our solvent currency. ... It was substantially like diluting 



Legal Tender Legislation ti 

note circulation could not be sustained at par with coin, 
unless made receivable by the government, and it could 
not be made so receivable without risk of serious and 
perhaps irretrievable financial embarrassment and disorder.' 
This conflict of interests precipitated the suspension of specie 
payments. The banks, anxious to save the forty million dollars 
of coin remaining to them, voted on the 28th of December to 
suspend specie payments on the succeeding Monday.^ Their 
example was followed throughout the country, and the gov- 
ernment had no choice but to suspend payment of the demand 
notes in coin, and to take measures to provide a currency in 
which loans could be negotiated and the transactions of the 
government carried on. These conditions led to the legal 
tender legislation, not inevitably, but as a measure which 
commanded the largest support. 

I wished to avoid the necessity of making notes of any kind a 
legal tender [said Mr. Chase], and proposed several modes of doing 
it. To none could the unanimous consent of the banks be obtained. 
Some of them manifested a disposition to discredit the national cir- 
culation wholly, whether issued in notes bearing interest, or issued 
in notes bearing no interest; and if possible, force upon the coun- 
try the circulation of the suspended banks. ^ 

The Secretary was confronted with a falling off in revenue 
and rapidly increasing expenses. A greater number of men 
for the army and navy than he had estimated for had been 

a sound metallic currency with so much copper." — Geo. S. Coe before the Am. 
Bankers' Association in 1S77. 

' Chase to Trowbridge, Warden, p. 388. 

* " From the 17th of August, i86r, to the 4th of January, 1S62, the specie was 
decreased $25,750,112 in the New York banks." — Report of Loan Committee of 
New York. Gold was being withdrawn from circulation and hoarded everywhere. 
" Blame has been thrown upon Mr. Chase for this suspension, but quite unjustly. 
That he might by some arrangement with the banks, in regard to the circulation 
of their notes, have postponed the suspension for a short time we do not doubt, 
but it could not long have been avoided." — Amasa Walker in Hunt's Mer. Mag., 
Jan., 1865, p. 24. See also Bolles, p. 38, who gives a good account of the 
controversy. 

^ Chase to Trowbridge. 



74 A Political History of Slavery 

called for by the President with the intention "to make the 
contest short and decisive." Thus additional appropriations 
of one hundred and forty-three millions of dollars would be 
required for the current year, which with expenditures already 
authorized by Congress would make an aggregate increase 
beyond the estimates of July of $213,904,427. And with a 
candor becoming a situation so grave, but which timid men 
deprecated, he estimated that the debt at the close of the 
fiscal year would amount to $517,372,802; and, should the 
war continue so long, June 30, 1863, would approximate 
double that sum." Already the expenditures reached nearly 
two millions of dollars a day. How to provide that sum was 
a most perplexing problem. The receipts from customs, sales 
of public lands and miscellaneous sources had been less than 
anticipated, and he could count on an aggregate revenue from 
all sources, including the direct tax, of only $54,552,665, 
which was $25,447,334 less than the estimate of July. 

Beyond an increase in the duties on tea, coffee and sugar, 
the Secretary did not recommend any other alteration in the 
tariff at this session of Congress, unless further experience or 
changed circumstances demonstrated the necessity of it. Con- 
siderations of prudence and patriotism concurred in favor of 
giving to the existing tariff a full and fair trial, and of reserv- 
ing the work of revision, modification and permanent settle- 
ment for more propitious days. While the American people 
were concentrating their energies and all of their resources on 
the establishment of the Union on the permanent foundations 
of justice and freedom ; and while other nations looked with 
indifferent or unfriendly eyes upon this work, sound policy 
would seem to suggest a more absolute reliance upon American 
labor, American skill and American soil rather than the ex- 
tension of foreign trade. "Freedom of commerce is, indeed, 

' If the reader will take the trouble to compare his estimates with the results of 
the debt, he will see how nearly they approximate. On the 30th of June, 1862, 
the debt was $514,211,371.62, and on the 30th of June, 1863, it was $1,098,793,- 
181.37 — his estimate in his report of Dec, 1862, having been $1,122,297,403.24. 
BoUes, p. 235, n. 



Legal Tender Legislation 75 

a wise and noble policy: but to be wise or noble it must be 
the policy of concordant and fraternal nations. ' ' In this sound 
maxim was conveyed a hint to England and France that the 
way to reach our trade was not through our national destruc- 
tion. Congress met the views of the Secretary by appropriate 
legislation," but other changes in the tariff were made from 
time to time until a new system was formed — until the moderate 
rates of eighteen per cent, on dutiable articles and twelve per 
cent, on the aggregate in 1860-61 rose before the end of the 
war to nearly fifty per cent, on dutiable articles and thirty-five 
per cent, on the aggregate. Not wholly to the exigencies of 
civil war must one attribute the evolution of the tariff as it 
stood revealed in 1865. In part it was due to the enormous 
profits which rewarded capital, to the greed which became in- 
satiable and invented plausible reasons for greater and ever 
greater protection. Congress, engaged in the work of saving 
the Union, listened sympathetically and yielded, because the 
tariff was the chief means for getting capital into a position in 
which taxation could be applied to it, and successful taxation 
measured the nation's power of endurance. The government 
became an enormous customer, and under the stimulus of its 
demands there was a stir in every branch of industry and an 
inducement to enterprise in new fields. By midsummer in 
1 861 government work was fully employing seventy mills in 
New England, and the one item of dry goods contracted for was 
estimated at twenty millions of dollars. Not the dry goods 
and munitions of war supplied by New England only, but the 
agricultural products of the great West brought cash prices 
and gave life and activity to business. Thus all labor found 
employment, and development became the watchword in old 
and new districts, which in after time had to be estimated by 
the normal standard of commercial experience. 

But meantime the Secretary of the Treasury was devising 
ways and means for keeping up the financial credit of the 
United States. Besides the increase in duties on tea, coffee 

' An act increasing the rates on tea, coffee and sugar was passed and approved 
Dec. 24th. 



76 A Political History of Slavery 

and sugar, he proposed to increase the direct tax, so as to pro- 
duce from the loyal States and territories and the District of 
Columbia an annual revenue of twenty millions of dollars; to 
increase the excise tax and to modify the income tax law so as 
to secure a return of thirty millions more, making an aggregate 
of fifty millions of dollars derived from internal taxation, which 
would be little more than one-sixth of the annual surplus earn- 
ings. That this sum and much larger sums could be paid by 
the loyal people without inconvenience, was demonstrated as 
the years were checked off. The direct and indirect taxation 
gave a financial standing to the government's operations. 
Duties were required to be paid in coin, which was available 
for liquidating the interest charges on the outstanding bonds. 
Of course the chief reliance of the government for carrying 
on its vast operations was upon loans. 

Foreign loans for the present were out of the question, as 
the great banking houses of Europe, even as did the govern- 
ments of Great Britain and France, looked askance upon the 
American Republic rent in twain. Our own resources were to 
be subjected to a thorough trial for which no adequate prepara- 
tion had been made. The emergency at the beginning of the 
new year was great. The pay of the soldiers was in arrears, 
and other claims were pressing for settlement. Congressmen 
felt the responsibility and acted with reasonable promptitude. 
A joint resolution passed the House in January, declaring it 
to be the intention of Congress to levy such an internal tax as 
would, with the duties on imports, raise a yearly revenue of 
one hundred and fifty million dollars. This had an immediate 
beneficial effect on the public credit. But it was not until the 
3d of March that Mr. Morrill of Vermont, chairman of the sub- 
committee, was prepared to lay his tax bill before the House 
and to secure an order to print. The subject was vast and 
complex, and the bill, which covered every phase of it, was 
one of the most important ever laid before the national legis- 
lature. It created the internal revenue system which per- 
formed such an important part in the conduct of the closing 
years of the war and in the rapid payment of the national debt. 



Legal Tender Legislation tj 

Owing to the opposition of the West, Congress did not con- 
firm the Secretary's recommendation in regard to the direct 
tax. A measure of doubtful expediency at best, it was 
limited to a single payment, and was repealed in 1864. 

Neither did Congress act upon the Secretary's proposed 
system of national currency, although the New York bankers 
had come to its support.' Time was requisite to remove ob- 
jections, and the necessities of the government required prompt 
action. In this emergency, a bare majority of the Committee 
of Ways and Means decided to bring in a measure authorizing 
the issue of treasury notes that should be a legal tender in the 
payment of all obligations, public and private, except duties 
on imports and interest on the public debt, and exchangeable 
into six per cent, bonds, redeemable at the pleasure of the 
United States after five years. Mr. E, G. Spaulding of New 
York, who drafted the bill, opened the debate on the 28th of 
January in an elaborate speech which described the conditions 
that constrained the committee to recommend "a measure of 
necessity, not of choice, to meet the most pressing demands 
upon the Treasury." The opposition was warm and denunci- 
atory, and was led in the House by Mr. Horton and Mr. 
Pendleton of Ohio, Mr. Morrill of Vermont and Mr. Roscoe 
Conkling of New York; and in the Senate by Mr. Collamer 
and Mr. Fessenden. Mr. Sherman, in the Senate, and Mr. 
Bingham, in the House, defended the constitutionality of the 
measure in speeches which have often been cited in the con- 
troversy that has ensued from this extraordinary legislation. 
While the storm of debate was raging most furiously, and 
pessimists who saw only bankruptcy and unending evil ahead 
were talking about "a saturnalia of fraud," and were predict- 
ing that American labor would be crippled while the rich would 
become richer, the common people and commercial bodies 
united in demanding the passage of the bill with the legal 
tender quality. Public opinion has seldom been more united 

' The Committee of Ways and Means, Dec. 30th, had under consideration a bill 
to establish a national banking system, but its fate being in doubt it was laid 
aside temporarily. 



78 A Political History of Slavery 

and emphatic in favor of any measure. These legal tender 
notes were the best substitute for gold and silver that could 
be devised, and far more acceptable to the people than irre- 
deemable bank notes.' The Chamber of Commerce of Cin- 
cinnati and the commercial bodies of Boston, New York, 
Philadelphia, Louisville, St. Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee 
approved the measure and urged its early passage. In oppo- 
sition "a doleful sound came up from the caverns of bullion 
brokers," said Thaddeus Stevens, who reflected on the Senate 
for yielding to this influence, which was used to secure such 
modifications as would weaken the real purpose of the legisla- 
tion proposed. Unless the treasury notes should be stamped 
with the authority of lawful money an officer of the Bank of 
Commerce of New York declared that the banks of the country 
could not further aid the government. Here was a great crisis 
involving, it was believed, the very life of the Republic. Did 
the Constitution leave the legislature as helpless as regards the 
power to declare what should be a legal tender in such an 
emergency as it was claimed it left the executive in the face 
of a State in insurrection? This legislation was completed on 
the 25th of February, 1862, and provision was thus made for 
meeting the pressing necessities of the government. The first 
issue authorized was one hundred and fifty million dollars. A 
little later the Secretary of the Treasury asked for another issue 
of equal amount. The popularity of the greenback currency 
attached to that officer, who disclaimed the credit of origi- 
nating it, but found it difficult to set the public right and to 
make his support of the measure before Congress square with 
his opinion as to its unconstitutionality.* 

' Bolles, p. 72. 

* On receipt of the resolutions adopted by the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce 
approving the legal tender note bill, and pledging the support of the merchants 
of that city to the " financial measures necessary to the prompt and vigorous sup- 
pression of the rebellion," Secretary Chase said in reply: "The legal tender 
clause of the bill referred to received my sanction and support as a measure of 
imperative necessity. The cordial approval of it by the influential body you 
represent confirms my convictions of the wisdom of the measure." — S. P. Chase 
to John A. Gano, Secretary, etc., Feb. 17, 1862. Cincinnati Commercial. See 



The National Bank Law 79 

The reason of the great popularity of the legal tender notes 
was tersely expressed by Mr. Shellabarger of Ohio during the 
debate in the House on the measure authorizing them. " They 
will be borne up," said he, "by all the faith and all the property 
of the people, and they will have all the value which that faith 
untarnished and that property inestimable can give them." 

To complete the financial system of the government it was 
necessary to create a currency that should be of uniform value 
throughout the country. The evils resulting from banking 
carried on under State laws have been described, and they 
were likely to increase as new banks should be established in 
the rising States west of Illinois. At this period there were 
seven thousand kinds of bank notes in circulation. The ease 
with which they were counterfeited, and their fluctuations in 
value, amounted to an onerous tax upon the people. At this 
time, also, the suspension of specie payments proved a great 
temptation to banks of issue, and they increased their circula- 
tion in one year fifty-six million dollars — thus inflating the 
currency and inciting to hazardous speculations, which inevit- 
ably result in panics and widespread disaster and suffering. 

In the opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury the govern- 
ment ought to control the credit circulation, which "enters so 
largely into the transactions of commerce, and affects in so 
many ways the value of coin." He therefore recommended 
the establishment of a national system that should give the 
Treasury Department complete control of the currency. The 
principal features of his plan were first, the making of notes 
bearing a common impression and authenticated by a common 
authority; second, their redemption by the associations and 
institutions to which they should be delivered for issue; and 
third, the securing of them by a pledge of United States 
bonds and an adequate amount of specie.' This plan, the 

also opinion of Chief Justice Chase in Hepburn vs. Grisvvold (8 Wallace, 604 et 
seq.), and personal explanation as to his relations to the legal tender legislation 
prefacing his dissenting opinion in the subsequent cases of Knox vs. Lee and 
Parker vs. Davis, in which the court reversed the former decision and affirmed the 
constitutionality of the legal tender laws (12 Wallace, 457). Cited in an article 
in Harper's Magazine, Oct., 1873. ' Bolles, vol. iii., p. 199. 



So A Political History of Slavery 

Secretary believed, would give to the people in their ordinary 
business a uniform and safe currency secured against deprecia- 
tion, and protect them from losses in discounts and exchanges; 

while, in the operations of the government the people would find 
the further advantages of a large demand for government securities, 
of increased facilities for obtaining the loans required by the war, 
and of some alleviation of the burdens on industry through a dimi- 
nution in the rate of interest, or a participation in the profit of cir- 
culation without risking the perils of a great money monopoly.' 

The opposition to such a radical change in our currency 
system was sure to be formidable, both inside and outside the 
halls of Congress. Time was therefore given for the people to 
consider the plan, before attempting its legislative enactment. 
It was not until the session of 1862-3 that an earnest attempt 
was made to create a national banking system. On the 5th 
of January, 1863, Mr, Sherman introduced a bill in the Senate 
for the levy of a tax of two per cent, on the circulation of all 
bank bills, and a tax of ten per cent, on all fractional currency 
under one dollar issued by corporations and individuals. He 
stated the purpose of the bill to be "to induce the banks of 
the United States to withdraw their bank paper, in order to 
substitute for it a national currency, or rather the national 
currency we have already adopted." 

On the 26th of January, Mr. Sherman completed the plan 
by the introduction of a bill to "provide a national currency, 
secured by a pledge of United States stocks, and for the circu- 
lation and redemption thereof." The bill was reported back 
to the Senate by the Committee on Finance, and debated in 
committee of the whole. Mr. Sherman advocated the measure 
in an elaSorate argument, remarkable for its lucidity and full- 
ness of information. Mr. Collamer of Vermont was the 
principal opponent, who brought under discussion the two 
measures of January 5th and 26th as constituting a plan for 
the overthrow of the existing system of State banks and pri- 
vate corporations. He questioned the right of the government 
* Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 1861. 



I 



The National Bank Law 8i 

to establish corporations in States entirely independent of their 
power of visitation. "It will be found," said he, "that the 
people will not break up their present system of banking, in- 
terwoven as it is with all their transactions, bound up as their 
business life is with it, to establish banks under this bill, and 
they will never buy United States stocks for this purpose." 
But Mr. Collamer proved a false prophet. All was done that 
he predicted would not be. The bill passed the Senate on 
the 1 2th day of February by the close vote of twenty-three 
to twenty-one and was sent to the House. It passed that 
body after a thorough discussion on the 20th of February, and 
received the President's approval on the 25th. The bill to tax 
the circulation of existing banks also became a law. 

" These two measures," says their author, "tested by time, 
have fully realized the anticipations and confident assurance " * 
of those who gave them their support, and have given rise to 
none of the evils predicted of them by Senator Collamer and 
other advocates of the old State system. The legislation re- 
flected the practical logical character of the people. It made 
the banks aids to the government in the administration of the 
public service, especially important in a time of war, and 
placed them outside of State control." The work of inaugu- 
rating the new system provided for in the National Banking 
Act was confided to Hugh McCuUoch, who had conducted 
the affairs of the State Bank of Indiana for many years with 
success, and who was appointed Comptroller of the Currency. 

' Recollections of John Sherman, vol. i., p. 299. 

'^Cf. The Political Life of Our Time, by David Nicol, vol. ii., p. 134, et seq, 
for an intelligent analysis of the English, Scotch and American banking systems. 




CHAPTER IV 

EMANCIPATION 

THE course of political events was influenced by the failure 
of our generals to meet the expectations of the people, 
the responsibility for which could not be escaped by 
the administration ; by divisions in the Cabinet, which invited 
the criticisms of the press; by conflicts in Congress and among 
the people over the ever-present slavery problem ; and by the 
wanton and unnecessary use of the power to arrest without 
trial, which aroused the apprehensions of thousands as to the 
final effect of such constant invasions of personal liberty. Of 
all these that party in the North which had ever been domi- 
nated by the aristocracy of the South, and the control of which 
had now been seized by politicians who openly sympathized 
with the leaders of the rebellion, took advantage and con- 
ducted an aggressive campaign against the party in power, 
whose voting strength was largely represented by the soldiers 
engaged in the work of suppressing insurrection. In all hu- 
man probability if McClellan had entered Richmond, the 
attempt to revive the Democratic party in the free States, be- 
gun in the winter, would have failed. The want of decisive 
military results prolonged the war, and with the prospect of 
the enforcement of the conscription law in reserve there was 
the foundation for an opposition party, even without taking 
into consideration the burning subjects of confiscation and 
emancipation. To reach the leaders in the rebellion without 
touching slavery — that was the question. The prejudices of 
centuries presented an almost impassable barrier. When these 



Democratic Opposition to War 83 

failed the Constitution was invoked as a protection. You might 
confiscate the rebel's money, his horses and mules, but his 
slave not at all. African slavery was a divine institution regu- 
lated by municipal law, and over it, though it threatened the 
destruction of the government, was spread the aegis of the Con- 
stitution. Senator Garrett Davis of Kentucky wanted the rebel 
leaders punished. "Those that are impenitent and incorrigi- 
ble, and continue to be so, I want punished. They cannot live 
in the same country with Union men. They must come back 
and submit to the laws and live as quiet citizens, or they must 
perish upon the gallows or go into exile." Kentucky wanted 
a law to accomplish that. **I am ready to vote for it; but not 
to free their slaves, not to free any slaves, because Congress 
has no power to do that." Forfeiture of life or property, ban- 
ishment for the impenitent rebel, but the system for which he 
became a rebel should endure as a rock ! It all seems strange, 
doubtless, to the younger generation. To the men of the time 
the problem presented evils whichever way it was examined. 

This forfeiture [said Senator Davis] may operate to the disen- 
thralling of three million five hundred thousand negroes. It is only 
necessary to state the proposition that it may strike every man's 
mind as true, whether he has practical observation and experience 
on the subject or not, that it is utterly impossible, in the cotton 
States especially, for the negro population and the white population 
to remain and live together, both being free. It would be better 
altogether, if the two races are to remain, that the black race should 
be in a state of slavery, and that the whites should have the mastery.' 

Indiana was deemed to be a safe State in which to launch 
the new political venture on the anniversary of the victory of 
New Orleans. The reader may be amazed at the audacity of 
peace men, in a time when secessionists were seeking to de- 
stroy the Union, in invoking the name of Andrew Jackson, 
who arrested, imprisoned and banished Judge Hall for issuing 
the writ of habeas corpus; who crushed nullification in South 
Carolina and denounced secessionists as traitors, and whose 

''■Cong. Globe, Thirty-seventh Congress, p. 17S0. 



84 A Political History of Slavery 

will, when President, was the law. But the history of political 
parties abounds in such inconsistencies. By parading the 
virtues of heroes long enough dead to obtain a place in the 
saints' calendar, one's lack of virtue and patriotism may escape 
exposure. Insidious treason, during the war, appealed to 
Jackson's fame and Jackson's principles as evidence of the 
purity of its own purpose, and of the soundness of its own 
teachings, but sulked in the shadows of night when giving 
them practical application. 

In the absence of sixty thousand loyal sons of Indiana on the 
battle-fields, five hundred "sympathizers" ventured to meet 
in convention in Indianapolis on the 8th of January, 1862, 
and cheer such sentiments as these uttered by John G. Davis: 

Under no circumstances could he be induced to vote for sustain- 
ing the present administration in any form, or vote for the uncon- 
ditional prosecution of the war. 

At heart Lincoln was as rotten to-day as ever, and not only rot- 
ten, but miserably corrupt; and not only corrupt, but unfortunately 
a weak man. 

The resolutions adopted were in much the same spirit. The 
restoration of the Union, they declared, could only be accom- 
plished by the ascendency of a Union party in the South, 
which by counter revolution should displace those who con- 
trolled and directed the Southern rebellion. Who would have 
consituted the Union party of the rebellious States? The 
able-bodied men forced into the armies of the Confederacy 
by conscription? Had any dared to utter Union sentiments 
within its military lines his life had been instantly forfeited. 
And yet throughout the remaining years of war the loyal 
Governors and the people of the Northern States had to fight 
this formidable opposition while fighting its allies in arms in 
front. That the undertaking was successful was due in large 
measure to that portion of the Democratic party who placed 
country before party and held firmly in that way in their acts, 
which were equal to the demands of the highest patriotism 
and broadest statesmanship. 



Efforts for Gradual Emancipation 85 

When it was proposed to abandon the Democratic party 
and form a conservative party to resist the growing sentiment 
in favor of confiscating the slave as well as other property of 
those engaged in rebellion, Mr. Vallandigham denounced the 
scheme and by vigorous resistance defeated it. He boldly 
assumed the responsibility of preparing an address to the 
Democracy of tiie United States which only fifteen mem- 
bers of Congress could be induced to sign, but others partici- 
pated in the party action which this foreshadowed. One 
looked in vain for any words condemning the rebellion, or the 
despotic power in the seceded States which held the masses of 
people in thrall. It declared the immediate issue to be "to 
maintain the Constitution as it is and to restore the Union as 
it was," which from the point of view of the signers of the 
address meant the restoration to power of a faction who be- 
lieved in the constitutional right of a State to secede at will 
and in the divine right of holding their fellow men in bondage. 
There was a demagogic appeal to party prejudice in the revival 
of an old slander — "The bitter waters of secession flowed first 
and are still fed from the unclean fountain of abolition," — 
made to apply to the Republican party. The signers counted 
on the ignorance of their followers. Messrs. Yancey and 
Mason, rebel envoys, in their letter to Lord John Russell, 
said: "It was from no fear that the slaves would be liberated 
that secession took place. The very party in power has pro- 
posed to guarantee slavery forever in the States if the South 
would but remain in the Union." 

Congress opened up a broader view to foreign nations of the 
purpose of the men engaged, without distinction of party, in 
prosecuting the war for the Union to stamp out the idea that 
there could be property in man. Who could not see that the 
logical outcome would be universal emancipation? In the 
confiscation act necessarily the property right was recognized.' 

As the planter in rebellion made no discrimination between 

' This was an act to punish treason, and to punish persons guilty of acts inciting 
to and aiding rebellion. It provided also for the employment of Africans in the 
military service, and for amnesty for citizens subject to rebellion. 



86 A Political History of Slavery 

his ass and his slave, why should the United States? Why 
should not both equally be subjected to the war power? The 
suggestion brought into opposition a majority of the loyal 
men representing the States of Virginia, Kentucky and Mis- 
souri in Congress — so deeply implanted was the habit of de- 
ferring to the sensibilities of slaveholders. Mr. Lincoln had 
not done that exactly : he had simply respected the prejudices 
of the Union men of the border States when he approached 
the subject of slavery. Looking to the preservation of the 
Union as the paramount object, he labored to commit the 
border States to the cause which was before all other interests. 
Their constitutional rights were regarded, but foreseeing the 
inevitable result of the friction of war he recommended, on 
the 6th of March, the adoption of a resolution promising the 
cooperation of the general government with any State that 
might adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery. And later, 
while vetoing General Hunter's proclamation liberating the 
slaves of secessionists in Carolina, he appealed to the people 
of the slaveholding States to take a calm and enlarged con- 
sideration of the signs of the times, "ranging, if it may be, far 
above personal and party politics." The change contem- 
plated "would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rend- 
ing or wrecking anything." Would they not embrace it? 
And then he concluded in two brief sentences, the beauty and 
pathos and wisdom of which time has confirmed: "So much 
good has not been done by one effort in all past time as in the 
providence of God it is now your high privilege to do. May 
the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected 
it." But they hardened their hearts and would not see. 

Mr. Lincoln was undoubtedly sincere in arguing that gradual 
emancipation was wiser for all concerned than immediate and 
unconditional emancipation by the war power.' The plan he 
urged upon the attention of the border slave States in lan- 
guage "winged with the fervor " of consuming patriotism and 
love might be made a means for terminating hostilities and 

'Mr. Garrison dissented: " Ethically and pecuniarily immediate emancipation 
is better for all parties." — The Liberator, March, 1862. 



Efforts for Gradual Emancipation 87 

restoring the Union. The reasons are obvious. He pressed 
upon the attention of the Southern people the avowed prin- 
ciples of one of their former great leaders — of that Henry 
Clay whose memory they professed to revere. Might those 
principles be revived in that section? Thus in a message an- 
nouncing that he had signed a bill for the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia, the President said: "I am grati- 
fied that the two principles of compensation and colonization 
are both recognized and practically applied in the act." 
Again, in May, 1863, in a conversation with Mr. James Taus- 
sig and others representing the radicals of Missouri, Mr. Lin- 
coln said that the Union men of that State who were in favor 
of gradual emancipation represented his views better than 
those who were in favor of immediate emancipation. 

It must be confessed that Mr. Lincoln's cautious policy 
relating to slavery, like his cautious policy in dealing with 
McClellan, created irritation and a feeling of disgust in many 
quarters. Senators complained that he did not use the power 
Congress had placed in his hands — that he did not execute the 
confiscation laws. Some believed that he wished to take to 
himself the whole credit of emancipation, leaving unrecognized 
the work of the legislative department. We are certain that 
there are those still living who cherish this feeling. And yet 
the anti-slavery policy of Congress stopped short of complete 
emancipation. Its limitations will be understood from this 
clause of the act itself : 

All slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion 
against the government of the United States or who shall in any 
way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons, or de- 
serted by them and coming under the control of the government of 
the United States, and all slaves of such persons found or being 
within any place occupied by the forces of the United States, shall 
be deemed captives, shall be forever free of their servitude, and not 
again held as slaves. 

Faithfully executed, this act would have rendered slavery in 
districts not touched by it practically valueless. The prospect 



88 A Political History of Slavery 

of such an effect, and the provision for the seizure of estates, 
money and credits, declaring null and void all sales or trans- 
fers, aroused the bitter hostility of conservatives and invited 
the consolidation of anti-war Democrats referred to above. 
The law struck at the leaders of the rebellion, and not at the 
masses of the citizens of the Southern States, who were amply 
protected by a provision for amnesty. While it is true that 
the power it had conferred on the President, if exercised, 
would have destroyed slavery, yet there was a discretionary 
power left to the President. He chose to bear the reproaches 
of his party friends rather than to startle the men of other 
parties working with him and to risk rousing latent party pas- 
sions. He witnessed, with apparent complacency, the officious 
zeal of commanding officers in returning to slavery the con- 
trabands who escaped to our military lines; and in furnishing 
guards of soldiers to protect the property of secessionists, even 
though the national troops were sorely in need of the very 
supplies thus protected and reserved for the confederate gov- 
ernment.' It is not to be wondered at that these facts, known 
to the soldiers and their friends at home, gave rise to bitter 
feelings, and intensified the radicaUsm which Mr. Lincoln was 
resisting. 

Congress met the first-named difficulty by enacting a new 
Article of War, which prohibited all officers in the military 
or naval service from returning fugitive slaves. Thus to the 
Thirty-seventh Congress must be given the credit of this 
proper rule ; of a law forever prohibiting slavery in the terri- 
tories; of a law authorizing the appointment of diplomatic 
representatives to Hayti and Liberia ; of a law for the care of 
Africans taken from slave ships ; of the far-reaching confisca- 
tion act, and of the act abohshing slavery in the District of 
Columbia, which was signed by the President on the i6th of 
April. 

This last act challenged the attention of foreign governments 
to an extent that influenced the London Times to declare that 

' Correspondence of Major W. D. Bickham, Cincinnati Cotnmercial, June 13, 
from the army of McClellan. 



Work of Thirty-Seventh Congress 89 

the 1 6th of April, 1862, was a day which would stand in Ameri- 
can history as the greatest day since the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence — the day of this century which would be honored 
through all time, whatever might be the destiny in store for the 
Republic. Because, declared the Times, "on that day the peo- 
ple of the States ceased to be a slaveholding nation " — ceased 
to be the subject for the scorn of the world, on account of the 
contrast between its profession and its practice. Deprived of 
national sanction and support, and exposed to the condemna- 
tion of the American government, together with all other 
governments, slavery "could not long sustain itself under the 
scorn and loathing of human society." There was a note of 
warning in this to the confederate envoys in Europe. Thou- 
sands of Americans, fervently thanking God, exclaimed with 
Whittier, "I can now lift up my head without shame in the 
face of the world." * 

Besides the various acts relating to slavery ; regulations for 
the army and navy; and the very important financial and 
revenue laws for carrying on the war, which alone make the 
first and second sessions of the Thirty-seventh Congress great 
in history, — a record resplendent for patriotism and for practi- 
cal statesmanship, — there were other acts calculated to work 
radical changes in the condition of the country. The Union 
Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated, — legislation intro- 
ductory to extensive and not wisely considered schemes for 
opening up and improving the vast domain lying west of 
the Mississippi, which was unfortunately amended in 1864 so 
as to make the government-aid bonds a second Hen on the 
property. 

Public lands not exceeding thirty thousand acres for each 
Senator and Representative in Congress were apportioned to 
the several States for the use of colleges in which special at- 
tention was required to be given to such branches of learning 
as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts — the funds 
arising from the sale of such lands to be invested in United 
States stocks, or other safe securities including State stocks, 

' Letter to Sumner. Pickard, vol. ii., p. 440. 



90 A Political History of Slavery 

yielding not less than five per cent. Provision was made for 
establishing at the seat of government a Department of Agri- 
culture — the head of which has recently been made one of the 
constitutional advisers of the President. Provision was also 
made for reducing the expense of the survey and sale of public 
lands. An act was passed to punish polygamy, which was 
designed to accomplish in the case of the second of the "twin 
relics of barbarism" what the military power was expected to 
do with slavery. An iron-clad oath of ofifice was prescribed 
for persons elected or appointed to any ofifice of honor or 
profit under the government of the United States. And the 
Senate of the United States expelled from his seat Jesse D. 
Bright of Indiana for aiding the rebellion, and refused to expel 
Senator Powell of Kentucky for entertaining sentiments of 
sympathy for the Southern confederacy, although it was as- 
sured by the Legislature of that State that Mr. Powell did not 
represent the Unionism of Kentucky, and urged by his col- 
league, Garrett Davis, to do so. The distinction marked the 
moderation of the majority. 

When the members of Congress returned to their homes 
they found the people depressed and anxious. They found, 
also, that there was an old-time activity among Democrats, 
and that the unanimity of the community before prevalent had 
given place to fault-finding and bickering. The effort to re- 
organize the Democratic party in opposition to the adminis- 
tration originated with Clement L. Vallandigham, as we 
have seen, who gave to the cause all the ardor of a bold spirit 
and all the passion and fire of an intense partisan. He visited 
Philadelphia, New York and other cities, in which he roused 
a good deal of enthusiasm for his plan of party operations. 
Knowing the hold old leaders have on the people, he adroitly 
managed to have present at the Ohio Democratic State con- 
vention, which assembled at Columbus on the 4th of July, 
several who were most highly respected, who participated in 
the proceedings. The platform, prepared by Allen G. Thur- 
man, was constructed with great shrewdness. This resolution 
preceded others of a partisan character : 



Democratic Activity Revived 91 

Resolved, That every dictate of patriotism requires that in this 
terrible struggle in which we are engaged for the preservation of the 
government, the loyal people of the Union should present an un- 
broken front, and therefore all efforts to obtain or perpetuate party 
ascendency by forcing party issues upon them that necessarily tend 
to divide and distract them, as the Abolitionists are constantly 
doing, are hostile to the best interests of the country. 



Having now laid bare the sin of Mr. Garrison and his squad 
of non-voting citizens, the RepubHcans were held responsible 
for it. But the Republican party in Ohio was abandoned the 
day Sumter was fired upon. There was a Union party con- 
stituted of loyal Democrats and Republicans. The Governor 
of the State was a Democrat who had presided over the last 
national convention of the Democratic party. Why not sus- 
tain him? Was it because he was engaged in dealing blows 
at armed rebellion? Or, because he was filling up decimated 
regiments at the front and caring for sick and wounded 
soldiers? 

The resolutions condemned the acts of confiscation and 
emancipation as unconstitutional, as calculated to turn Union 
men in the South into rebels, prolong the war, afford a pretext 
for foreign intervention, and render the restoration of the 
Union impossible. If there were any Union men in the se- 
ceded States, they were performing the duty of soldiers. They 
were a part of the armed force the government was seeking to 
overcome. Counting on the ignorance of many and the in- 
fluence of race prejudice, they appealed to this mean passion 
of the white man. Emancipation would throw upon the 
border free States an increased number of negroes "to com- 
pete with and underwork the white laborers of the State." 
They would deem it most unjust to the gallant soldiers to see 
them compelled to free negroes of the South, "and thereby fill 
Ohio with a degraded population to compete with these same 
soldiers upon their return to the peaceable avocations of life." 
Of all of the tricks of the demagogue this appeal to race feel- 
ing is the most reprehensible. 



92 A Political History of Slavery 

The Democratic State convention of Pennsylvania, which 
was held on the same day, struck the same chord. The 
proposition to fill the North with the slaves of the South, to 
enter into competition with the white laboring masses, "is in- 
sulting to our race and merits our most emphatic and unquali- 
fied condemnation." In Indiana and Illinois there was 
expressed a determination to exclude negroes from the State. 
The government was given to understand that the support of 
those two States could not be had to prosecute an abolition 
war. In all of these connections the real animus appeared in 
the speeches of the occasion, and it was that of indiscriminate 
and reckless warfare upon the administration. 

With some this had no other meaning than party opposition. 
With Vallandigham and others it had a definite purpose. 
Why should every man in the North, asked Fernando Wood, 
one of the most active of this class, be determined to crush 
out the South and its system of labor? 

We should try to bring them back to the Union to the support 
and maintenance of the flag. We must have constitutional legisla- 
tion in the North, and to effect that must send to Congress proper 
men. We must put down all questions of slavery, of finance, of 
tariff, until the Union is restored. We must go into the South with 
the sword in one hand and the olive branch in the other. We have 
had blood enough; we must have peace.' 

In the Empire State the Democratic managers were cautious 
and respectful when referring to the administration, and ex- 
pressed their "willingness to withhold their views upon all 
questions not rendered imperative by the imperilled condition 
of the country" — which might mean much or little. The 
hand of Samuel J. Tilden is discernible in this Democratic 
movement which placed Horatio Seymour in the Governor's 
ofifice and the State in antagonism to the administration — an 
untoward event that seriously embarrassed Mr. Lincoln. 

The tone of the Union conventions of the West suffered no 
' Chicago Fribune, May 25th. 



Unionists Undismayed 93 

abatement of patriotism because all that the most sanguine 
had hoped for had not been accomplished in a twelvemonth. 
War Democrats and Republicans continued to cooperate and 
refused to permit differences to lessen their zeal. The call for 
three hundred thousand additional men, which was concerted 
between the President and the Governors of the loyal States 
in midsummer, was accepted as the proper thing by all who 
were committed to the prosecution of the war. Danger could 
arise only from party divisions. That staunch Democrat, 
Joseph A. Wright, who had been appointed by Governor 
Morton to fill the seat in the United States Senate from which 
Jesse D. Bright had been expelled, did not agree with Mr. 
Tilden of New York that an opposition party could be safely 
tolerated during a period when the life of the government 
was the stake. "Party creeds and party platforms," said he, 
"will divide us, and thus paralyze the arm of the govern- 
ment." Already a secret political organization was being 
formed in Brown and other counties of Indiana, for the osten- 
sible purpose of resisting the payment of direct taxes in sup- 
port of the war,' which soon assumed a distinctive name and 
formed a rebellious purpose, and extended its influence into 
the adjoining States, thereby becoming a powerful auxiliary 
force in support of the confederate cause. 

It must not be supposed that because the Union party pre- 
sented an unbroken front there was an absence of dissatisfac- 
tion among the people. On the contrary, there was a state of 
agitation in every community. There was a feeling that the 
government did not employ all of its resources, and that the 
generals who struck the hardest blows were not in favor. A 
well-known Union man of Whig antecedents, on being chided 
for voting the Democratic ticket in October, 1862, said in 
justification, "The government 1*3 not in earnest."^ This 
feeling found expression in a class of newspapers represented 
by the Cincinnati Gazette and the New York Tribune, and in 
many private letters passing from loyal friend to loyal friend. 

' Letter of Judge James Hughes of Bloomington, June i6th, to Gov. Morton. 
* Remarks of Senator Wright of Indiana, Dec. 11, 1862. Co7ig. Globe, p. 64. 



94 A Political History of Slavery 

The language of one written by a member of the Cabinet, un- 
wisely made public, may be quoted as fairly representing all : 

Under the influence of a short-sighted notion that the old Union 
can be reconstructed, after a year's civil war of free States and slave 
States, just as it was, the President has hitherto refused to sanction 
any adequate measure for the liberation of the loyal population of 
the South from slavery to the rebels. Hence we are fighting rebel- 
lion with one hand and with the other sanctioning its vital elements 
of strength. Then we have placed and continued in command gen- 
erals who have never manifested the slightest sympathy with our 
cause, as related to the controlling question of slavery. These 
naturally have never been more than half in earnest; and, instead 
of their being impelled to the most vigorous action, their influence 
has been suffered to paralyze in a great degree the activ^ity of the 
administration.' 

Delegations of clergymen unquestionably representing the 
sentiment of church membership pressed upon the President 
the importance of emancipating the slaves. Until a fatal blow 
should be struck at that evil, success would not reward the 
Union armies. This was the conviction of a vast number of 
earnest Christians. Mr. Greeley on the 19th of August in a 
letter entitled The Prayer of Twetity Millions urged a policy 
of emancipation and denounced all attempts to put down a 
slaveholders' rebellion without touching slavery as "preposter- 
ous and futile." Mr. Lincoln's reply to Mr. Greeley is one of 
his most famous papers. "If I could save the Union without 
freeing any slave, I would do it ; if I could save it by freeing 
all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing 
some and leaving others alone, I would do it." To the Chi- 
cago clergymen who visited him on the 13th of September, he 
said before dismissing them: "I have not decided against a 
proclamation of liberty to the slaves, but hold the matter 
under advisement. And I can assure you that the subject is 
on my mind, by day and night, more than any other. What- 
ever shall appear to be God's will I will do." It is known 

' S. P. Chase to Judge A. S. Latty, Sept. 17, 1862. 



Emancipation Proclamation 95 

that he had aheady prepared a preliminary proclamation of 
emancipation before these public utterances which left the 
subject undetermined, and was waiting a fitting occasion on 
which to issue it. That came on the 22d of September, five 
days after the victory of Antietam. Sagacious beyond most 
men, Mr. Lincoln read the meaning of the Democratic party 
revival. In the face of this danger he could not prudently 
longer disregard the wishes of that larger class of Northern 
citizens who had given him from the first the most loyal sup- 
port. He therefore resolved to strike a blow that should re- 
sound throughout the world and compel men to choose between 
the Union and slavery. 

This September proclamation was notice of a solemn purpose 
at the expiration of one hundred days to declare that "all per- 
sons held as slaves on the 1st of January, 1863, in any State 
or parts of States then in rebellion, should be then, thencefor- 
ward, and forever free." The President also announced his 
purpose to recommend to Congress another proffer of national 
aid to any States which should "voluntarily adopt immediate 
or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits." 

The country was startled rather than electrified by this un- 
expected announcement. Many who had hoped for the over- 
throw of the cause of the war were uncertain as to the effect 
of the act of the President at this time. The newspapers re- 
flected the political bias of their editors. "It is the beginning 
of the end of the rebellion," declared the New York Tribtme ; 
"the beginning of the new life of the nation." The Herald 
said, "The people of the South must see that the rebellion 
cannot succeed." "The wisdom of the step taken," said the 
Times, "is unquestionable; its necessity was indisputable." 
"Slavery is an element of strength to the rebels if left un- 
touched ; it will assuredly prove an element of weakness to 
them and their cause, when we make such use of it and its 
victims as lies in our power." The Post believed that the 22d 
of September, 1862, would thereafter be a day to be com- 
memorated with peculiar honor. 

The Journal of Commerce reflected the conservative 



96 A Political History of Slavery- 

Democratic sentiment when it declared that the President had 
yielded to the radical pressure and issued a proclamation. 
"We have only anticipations of evil from it, and we regard it, 
as will an immense majority of the people of the North, with 
profound regret." 

The apprehensions of the conservative Unionists of Ken- 
tucky were fairly expressed by George D. Prentice of the 
Louisville Journal, who denounced the proclamation as wholly 
unwarranted and pernicious — a mere brutum fulmen — that 
would prove only too effective for the purposes of the enemy. 
But his opposition was accompanied by a patriotic declaration, 
which one looks for in vain in the files of his Democratic con- 
temporaries of the North: "Kentucky cannot and will not 
acquiesce in this measure. Never! As little will she alloiu it 
to chill her devotion to the cmise thus cruelly imperilled anew.'' 

Two days after the country had been surprised by the 
emancipation proclamation another proclamation relating to 
arbitrary arrests and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus 
was issued, which was employed by the enemies of the admin- 
istration to create popular prejudice. The President himself 
had not up to this time directed any general suspension of the 
writ. Authority had been given in special cases, as at Key West 
and Baltimore. Arrests had been made by direction of the 
Secretary of State and the Secretary of War indiscriminately, 
until the 14th of February, 1862, when an order was issued 
transferring the control of the whole matter to the War De- 
partment. A commission, appointed by the Secretary of War 
to examine into the cases of the state prisoners, released from 
custody a large number on their taking the oath of allegiance. 
Arrests continued to be made by direction of Secretary Stanton 
from time to time. In some of the courts into which these 
cases were brought, the ground was taken that, although the 
President might have authority under the Constitution, when 
in times of rebellion or invasion the public safety should re- 
quire it, to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, he could not 
delegate that authority to any subordinate. To meet this 
doubt the proclamation was issued. 



Habeas Corpus Suspension 97 

It provided that during the insurrection, and as a necessary 
measure for suppressing the same, "all rebels and insurgents, 
their aiders and abettors," and "all persons discouraging 
volunteer enlistments, resisting military drafts or guilty of any 
disloyal practice affording aid and comfort to rebels against 
the authority of the United States, shall be subject to martial 
law and liable to trial and punishment by courts-martial or 
military commission." The writ of habeas corpus was sus- 
pended in respect to all such persons, then or thereafter in 
confinement, by any military authority, or by the sentence of 
any court-martial or military commission. This proclamation 
was accompanied by orders from the War Department ap- 
pointing a Provost Marshal General, whose headquarters were 
to be at Washington, and who was to be represented by 
deputy provost marshals in the several States, charged with 
the duty of arresting deserters and disloyal persons. The 
politicians did not fail to represent this as a system of tyranny 
spread as a net over the people of the States. 

Conservative men of different type actuated by higher 
motives called in question this exercise of power. Benjamin 
R. Curtis, an eminent member of the bar, who had once 
adorned the highest judicial tribunal of the land, in a pamphlet 
issued soon after the proclamation appeared, censured the ad- 
ministration in severe terms and denied the constitutionality 
of the proclamations. Opinion emanating from such a source 
had great weight. The regrettable feature of it was that it 
proved to be a weapon forged to the hand of that class of 
sympathizers with rebellion who refused to vote a man or a dol- 
lar to sustain the government.' Through its use by this class 
ignorant and weak men were incited to a course of opposition 
to the government, culminating in some instances in overt 
acts of treason. This resulted inevitably from the revolution- 
ary conditions then prevailing, and could in no wise be cited 
to impeach the motive of one who brought the acts of the 
Commander-in-Chief to a constitutional legal test. Military 

'For example see speech of Senator Powell of Kentucky, Dec. ii, 1862. 
Cotig. Globe, p. 67. 

VOL. II.— 7. 



98 A Political History of Slavery 

law, enacted for the government of the army and navy, 
Judge Curtis declared, could not rightfully be used to control 
the person or the property of the citizen. Nor could the 
President extend martial law, which was the will of a military 
commander, operating without any restraint save his own 
judgment, upon the lives, the property and the social condi- 
tion of the citizen in connection with some particular military 
operations, over the entire country. Since Charles I. lost 
his head there had been no king in England who could main- 
tain such a law in that realm. Where was there to be found 
in our history or our constitutions any warrant for saying that 
a President of the United States had been empowered by the 
Constitution to extend martial law over the whole country, 
and to subject thereby to his military power every right of 
every citizen? He had no such authority. Such a power 
"no free people could confer upon an executive officer, and 
remain a free people. For it would make him absolute master 
of their lives, their liberties, and their property, with power 
to delegate his mastership to such satraps as he might select, 
or as might be imposed on his credulity or his fears." 

The effect of the proclamation, issued on the eve of the 
October elections, was to accelerate the tendency to reaction 
which had been foreshadowed by the election in Maine, where 
the majority for Governor had been largely reduced, and where 
for the first time in ten years a Democrat had been returned 
to Congress. It was evident from the result in the great 
October States of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana that party 
spirit had resumed its sway over the people, and that New 
York and Illinois were pretty certain to vote against the ad- 
ministration in November. This prediction was unfortunately 
verified by the ballots. The President's own State, despite 
the efforts of his friends in the canvass and appeals to State 
pride, gave a majority of seventeen thousand for the Demo- 
cratic ticket, elected an opposition Legislature, and returned 
eleven Democrats to Congress out of a delegation of fourteen. 
The Unionists of New York had put in nomination for Gov- 
ernor, General James S. Wadsworth, one of the best brigadier- 



Elections of 1862 99 

generals in active service, whose former political associations 
had been with Silas Wright ; and for Lieutenant-Governor, 
Lyman Tremaine, another eminent citizen, who was also of the 
Democratic school. The success of the ticket headed by 
Horatio Seymour by a majority of 10,752 in a total vote of 
602,546 showed how sharply the contest was waged. The 
administration party had lost largely by enlistments, and yet 
their opponents won only by a narrow margin in the first 
State in the Union. 

In Ohio William W. Armstrong was elected Secretary of 
State by a majority of about 5500 in a total vote of 363,087, 
which was the average majority of the State ticket. Mr. 
Armstrong was of the Democratic school of Judge Ranney, 
who was elected to the Supreme bench and was known to be 
in favor of the prosecution of the war. There was little to re- 
gret in the election of State officers. But the administration 
was seriously w^ounded by the result in the Congressional dis- 
tricts. The Unionists prevailed in only five of the nineteen 
districts. The loss of William S. Groesbeck in the First, John 
A. Gurley in the Second, Samuel Shellabarger in the Seventh, 
and of John A. Bingham in the Sixteenth was a national dis- 
aster. The opponents of these able representatives of the 
Union cause succeeded only by professing to be in favor of a 
more vigorous prosecution of the war. This was notoriously 
true in the Second and Seventh districts. The successful can- 
didates proved the insincerity of their pledges early in the 
Thirty-eighth Congress, and were not again trusted by their 
constituents. In Indiana the Unionists carried but three dis- 
tricts out of eleven, and lost the State by a large majority. 
Michigan was saved to the administration by the exertions of 
Senator Zachariah Chandler, but by a reduced majority. Wis- 
consin went Democratic by two thousand majority. The 
States of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, California and 
Oregon, and the New England States stood by the adminis- 
tration. In the following year, the border slave States — Ken- 
tucky, West Virginia, and Maryland — justified the pledge of 
the Louisville jfournal, and by their elections added to the 

L.cfC. 



loo A Political History of Slavery 

strength of the administration. A working majority was se- 
cured in both Houses, and thus the scheme to paralyze the 
government by withholding appropriations was defeated.' 

The command of the Army of the Potomac was pressed 
upon General Burnside by the President, who was never at 
such disadvantage as when searching for a competent general. 
Without military knowledge himself, he knew nothing of the 
relative standing and ability of the officers of the regular 
army, and trusted to such information as others communicated 
to him. He liked Burnside for his manliness, fidelity and 
energy. He might do. In his hands was placed the fate of 
the army. General Burnside moved down the Rappahannock 
opposite Fredericksburg, where he confronted General Lee's 
army on the i6th of December. He crossed the river and 
assaulted the enemy in his fortifications, suffering a terrible 
defeat with a loss in killed and wounded of over ten thousand 
men. A profound feeling of discouragement pervaded the 
North, and made the winter of 1862-3 the gloomiest of the 
whole war. 

The insubordination among the officers in the Army of the 
Potomac, so fatal to the country when General Pope was 
valorously contending with Jackson and Lee, became more 
prominent upon Burnside's failure. A number of the officers 
carried their criticisms to the President and members of the 
Cabinet. General Burnside, indignant, would have dismissed 
them all. When he took to the President an order for that 
purpose, the latter, declining to approve it, assigned him to 
the command of the Department of Ohio, with headquarters 
at Cincinnati, and designated as his successor. General Joseph 
E. Hooker, one of the most outspoken of his critics, who, in 
a few months, through bitter experience, himself learned how 
grateful are patience and charity when one is charged with 
great responsibilities. 

* There is no doubt but that this treasonable purpose was entertained by some. 
The remarks of Fernando Wood and of Davis of Indiana have already been 
given. Mr. Noxon, who presided over a convention held in Troy, N. Y., said : 
" Let us stop this war. We shall not get rid of it unless we have a change in our 
members of Congress," — Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling, p. 182. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE PEACE DEMOCRATS— KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE 
—WEST VIRGINIA A STATE 

WE are now at a stage in the history of the rebellion 
when the greatest peril at home threatened the life 
of the Republic — when even loyal hearts daily looked 
Despair in the face — when that faction of the Northern people 
who hated the negro and sympathized with the Southern con- 
federacy, encouraged by the formidable military power con- 
fronting the Union armies at every point, organized secretly 
for the purpose of stopping enlistments, of reducing the finan- 
cial resources of the government, and of bringing about a 
union between the Northwest and the South — when the leaders 
of the Democratic party, placing party before their country, 
made the emancipation proclamation a pretext for an open 
avowal of their hostility to the government, and a justification 
for opposition to legislation to promote the prosecution of the 
war. If, therefore, the government should fail to put down 
the secession movement; if the hour of calamity should come 
when the home of the free would be given over to wreck and 
ruin, the responsibility would be upon the heads of factionists 
and traitors in the North. Allies and emissaries of the enemy 
were found everywhere — appearing in different guises, but co- 
operating in the same nefarious work. Sometimes, said a 
Senator, "the government is attacked in the name of Democ- 
racy; sometimes fault is found with arrests; sometimes the 
army is opposed ; but the effect of all these attacks results in 
the accomplishment of the same bad end, the destruction of the 



I02 A Political History of Slavery 

government." ' This was indeed a period of gloom, but it was 
the darkness before a glorious dawn. The difHculties confront- 
ing the government stimulated the loyal people to greater effort, 
made sacred the dearest sacrifices, and in their unity consoli- 
dated an irresistible moral force which overcame all obstacles. 
The time had come to strike at the cause of the war. Mr. 
Lincoln, fulfilling the promise he made in September, in his 
annual message proposed a constitutional amendment to pro- 
vide compensation to every State that should abolish slavery 
before the year 1900; compensation to the loyal owners of 
slaves who had become free by the chances of war; and for 
colonizing free colored persons with their own consent without 
the United States. Thus the Southern people had before 
them the proposition for peaceful liberation and compensation 
during a period of thirty-seven years on the one hand, or the 
alternative of emancipation under the war power on the other. 
Mr. Lincoln's course had been consistent from the beginning. 
It is n9t likely that he any more than the mass of Americans 
perceived the magnitude of the social and political revolution 
that was being wrought out by the war. He had followed the 
lights afforded by his political education. He believed that 
slavery was an evil, but an evil to be slowly eradicated so that 
harm might not come to any class. Gradual emancipation 
would save the negroes from the vagrant destitution which 
it was believed must attend immediate emancipation in the 
localities where their numbers were great. The South had 
not been more responsible for the origin and perpetuation 
of slavery than the North, and justice required that the sac- 
rifice of the property interest involved should be at a com- 
mon charge. If he shared the prevalent feeling that freedmen 
in the United States might become as shiftless as their kin in 
the West Indies, he defended them from the imaginary charges 
which were used to excite the opposition of ignorant white 
people. Would their presence displace white labor? "If they 
stay in their old places, they jostle no white laborers; if they 

' Speech of Senator Wright of Indiana in reply to Senator Powell of Kentucky. 
Cong. Globe, Jan., 1863. 



Disloyalty in the North 103 

leave their old places, they leave them open to white laborers. 
Logically there is neither more nor less demand for labor." 
But colonization, which he strongly favored, was a means by 
which the conflicts of race might be regulated. 

The "excepted parts" — the border States including West 
Virginia, the eastern shore of Virginia, the cities of Norfolk 
and New Orleans, several Louisiana parishes and the State 
of Tennessee — described in the final proclamation of January 
I, 1863, showed a part only of what the political policy and 
the army and navy of the administration had done in eighteen 
months to defeat the hopes of the confederates. The block- 
ade of the sea-ports was fairly effective, while the proclamation 
of freedom was calculated to embarrass any British ministry 
attempting to intervene in the American contest. At home 
the majority of the people, enlightened by the logic of events, 
would soon reach the conclusion already formed by the class 
of advanced thinkers, by the administration and by the sol- 
diers in the field, that nothing short of the undoing of the 
system of slavery could compensate for the sacrifices, and 
render possible a permanent restoration of the Union. 

Persons who were never sincerely in favor of prosecuting 
the war, and who had sought an excuse to attack the admin- 
istration, found it in the proclamation of freedom. It was 
seen that slaves could be emancipated only within the reach 
of the liberating power, and that without military successes 
greater than any yet won by the national forces the proclama- 
tion would fail of its purpose. There was a concentration of 
influences to thwart the administration in the expectation 
that there would be failure. The commingling of conservative 
men who objected to arrests without trial within loyal States, 
or who opposed the emancipation proclamation as unconstitu- 
tional, and of avowed peace men and secret traitors who, as 
allies of the Confederacy, were laboring to destroy the govern- 
ment, is one of the most extraordinary facts developed in our 
"storm and stress " experience. Men of the school of James 
Buchanan could find no power in the Constitution for defend- 
ing the life of the government against States in rebellion ; and 



I04 A Political History of Slavery 

there were persons who wanted to save the Union, who would 
limit the powers of the Commander-in-Chief in a time of war. 
Horatio Seymour, who in January succeeded Edwin D. Morgan 
as Governor of New York, while conceding that the opponents 
of the government were bound to respect the President's con- 
stitutional rights, to uphold his powers and to sustain his acts 
done within the limits of rightful authority, left it to the op- 
position to determine the lawfulness of the President's acts 
and where the obedience of the citizen became obligatory. 
Partisan feeling, mayhap lack of sympathy with the prosecu- 
tion of the war, moved him to denounce the employment of 
the most vigorous means for the suppression of the rebellion. 
The Constitution stood in the way of every act that could hurt 
the power threatening the life of the Republic. And yet the 
President was required to "preserve, protect and defend " the 
Constitution. How could he do that in a time of war, unless 
in his capacity of Commander-in-Chief he should have power 
to adopt and carry out as to the enemy such measures as the 
laws of war justify, and as he might deem necessary? But 
for the servile population of the South, the armies of the Con- 
federacy would not have been so full and formidable as they 
were. It would seem that the employment of any means to 
weaken these, not inconsistent with the laws of war, was within 
the President's function as Commander-in-Chief, and became 
his highest duty.' 

Bolder spirits expressed the meaning of the leaders who 
spoke in the measured phrase of policy, when they denounced 
the soldiers at the front as "abolition thieves and traitors" 
who were engaged in a John Brown raid in the country of a 
people who were "fighting for their constitutional rights,"' 
A citizen of Chicago ' declared that he would suffer death be- 

' Cf. Chas. P. Kirkland's review of the pamphlet of Judge Curtis. Mr. Kirk- 
land quotes the opinion of John Quincy Adams, expressed in 1842, that " in a 
time of actual war military authority takes the place of all municipal institutions," 
slavery included, and that " not only the President of the United States, but the 
subordinate commander of the army, has the power to order the emancipation of 
the slaves." 

2 Ashland (O.) Union. => R. S. Merrick. 



Peace at any Price 105 

fore he would give one dollar or one man to the abolition war 
carried on under Lincoln's proclamation, which the Hamilton 
True Telegraph, Vallandigham's organ, applauded as the right 
kind of talk. "The storm is coming down on this adminis- 
tration, and if it is not overwhelmed and buried in the ruin it 
has wrought we are not prophets." This prophecy bore a 
striking resemblance to the hopes of the confederates. The 
peace-at-any-cost men presented many schemes leading to the 
same sequel — the triumph of secession. Mr. James Brooks, 
editor of the New York Express, who had been elected a mem- 
ber of the Thirty-eighth Congress, proposed that the State of 
New Jersey should interpose "in order to arrest the existing 
civil war," by inviting the free and loyal slaveholding States 
to meet in convention in Louisville in the following February; 
by sending commissioners, with the permission of the Presi- 
dent, to the seceded States to invite them "to meet in like 
national convention," and by requesting the President "to de- 
clare an armistice with or for each State or States, as may ac- 
cept this call for a national convention," ' 

"Ought this war to continue? " asked Vallandigham on the 
floor of Congress in January. "I answer no — not a day, not 
an hour. What then? Shall we separate? Again I answer 
no, no, no! " Had this question a hidden meaning? Speak- 
ing for the Northwest Mr. Vallandigham declared: "We can- 
not, ought not, will not separate from the South. We must 
and will follow the Mississippi River with travel and trade, not 
by treaty but by right, freely, peacefully and without restric- 
tion or tribute, under the smne government and flag, to its 
home in the bosom of the Gulf." 

It was a favorite plan of the secession Democracy to cut off 
New England and unite the West to the destinies of the slave- 
holding aristocracy. New England's offence was this: She 
loved liberty too well.^ To consummate this scheme of divi- 
sion a state of anarchy in the North was necessary. It was 

' Resolutions presented and adopted at a mass meeting in New York City, Dec. 
30, 1862. 

* Speech of Gov. Morton at Pike's Opera House, Cincinnati, Fel). 23, 1863. 



io6 A Political History of Slavery 

the mission of the Sons of Liberty and of the Knights of the 
Golden Circle to bring this about. Therefore, whatever gave 
rise to faction, whatever embarrassed the government and im- 
peded the march of the national troops, helped to promote the 
scheme. Mr. Vallandigham's plan of obstruction was an 
armistice. 

Stop fighting. Make an armistice — no formal treaty. Withdraw 
your army from the seceded States. Reduce both armies to a fair 
and sufficient peace establishment. Declare absolute free trade be- 
tween the North and South. Buy and sell. Agree upon a Zoll- 
verein. Recall your fleets. Break up your blockade. Reduce 
your navy. Restore travel. Open up railroads. Re-establish the 
telegraph. Reunite your express companies. No more monitors 
and ironclads, but set your friendly steamers and steamships again 
in motion. Visit the North and West. Visit the South. Exchange 
newspapers. Migrate. Intermarry. Let slavery alone. Hold 
elections at the appointed times. Choose a new President in 1864. 

Vallahdigham spoke for more than the men banded together 
under a secret oath to resist the government. "I assure you," 
wrote one to a leading paper of Iowa, "that every Democrat in 
Greenfield is opposed to the continuance of this war. Stop it 
instantly on any terms, is our motto." ' To stop the war was 
to recognize the principle of secession — to surrender the hope 
of national unity. This was understood by every man of in- 
telligence in the North. It was understood in the confederate 
capital. 

It is gratifying to discover [so runs the language of a report em- 
anating from the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the confederate 
House] that high-spirited and intelligent public men in several of 
the Northwestern States have, of late, become exceedingly active in 
their endeavors to discourage and suppress the ferocious war spirit 
heretofore raging among their fellow citizens, and that their honest 
and patriotic efforts have been already attended with most marked 
success. 

' Correspondence Dubuque Herald. 



Knights of the Golden Circle 107 

Jefferson Davis, misled by a false report of a confederate vic- 
tory at Murfreesboro, exclaimed exultingly : "Out of this vic- 
tory is to come that dissatisfaction in the Northwest which 
will rive the power of that section ; and thus we see in the 
dawn — first, separation in the Northwest from the Eastern 
States; then discord among them which will paralyze the 
power of both; then for us peace and prosperity." 

Did this frank avowal cause the desperate politicians of the 
North to pause in their efforts to cripple the government and 
destroy the Union armies? Not for one moment. Their in- 
fatuation led them to endure the most humiliating taunts from 
their Southern friends. The Richmond Enquirer accepted the 
Brooks resolutions as evidence that the confederate victories 
at Richmond, Manassas, Fredericksburg and Vicksburg had 
turned the tide in favor of peace. But the South would not 
grant an armistice, would not go into a convention or associate 
with the Northern people on any terms whatever. When 
Heaven had vouchsafed the Southern people many crowning 
victories, when their independence and liberty had been fairly 
won, the suggestion that all of their sacrifices were to be basely 
discarded for a connection with Yankees was not endurable, 
even as a jest ! The North could have peace by recognizing 
the independence of the Southern confederacy. If the States 
of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New 
York were to act on their own account, recall their quotas of 
troops from the field, and drive the rump government into 
congenial New England, they could make their own separate 
treaty or treaties of peace with the South. This was the only 
mode to escape a gigantic debt fastened on them by New Eng- 
land fanaticism and cupidity. If Illinois and Indiana alone 
were to act, Lincoln would be powerless to coerce them, and 
the war would at once break down.' 

' The scorn of the Richmond Despatch (January 7th) exceeded that of the En- 
quirer : " President Davis expressed the sentiment of the entire Confederacy, in 
his speech the other night, when he said the people would sooner unite with a 
nation of hyenas than the detestable detested Yankee nation. Anything but that 
— English colonization, French vassalage, Russian serfdom, all, all are preferable 
to any association with the Yankees." 



io8 A Political History of Slavery 

The Democratic Legislature of Indiana, which had been re- 
turned at the October election, inaugurated a bold system of 
resistance in January, 1863, which came near precipitating civil 
war within that State. It was treasonable in purpose ; in effect 
it prolonged the war more than a year by the encouragement 
it gave to the confederate government. On the heads of the 
desperate and misguided men who entered upon such a course 
rests the responsibility for the great sacrifice of life and treasure 
which ensued. During the year 1862 the secret order of the 
Knights of the Golden Circle had grown to such proportions 
that it was confidently believed the membership aggregated in 
the States of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio two hundred and fifty 
thousand. However that may be, it was a formidable force 
to be reckoned with in the future conduct of the war. The 
formation of this secret organization was simultaneous with 
the revival of the Democratic party. Its members were mem- 
bers of that party. They were elected to ofifice in the town- 
ships, in the counties, in the States, and publicly served as 
Democratic ofificials. As "Knights" they were banded to- 
gether to resist the government ; as citizens and in their official 
capacity, within limitations, they obstructed the prosecution 
of the war. 

The result of the elections of 1862 was misinterpreted as the 
expression of the majority of the people of the Central and 
Western States in favor of stopping the war, instead of the 
mere expression of dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war. 
New York, with 115,000 loyal men absent from the State, was 
carried by the opposition by only 10,000 majority. What 
would have been the verdict of the 115,000 soldiers? Pennsyl- 
vania, with 100,000 men in the field, gave an adverse majority 
of 3600. And so the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, 
where the treasonable organizations were active and where 
soldiers had no votes, were carried by small majorities. But 
the vote at the polls was used as the warrant for a political 
game designed to embarrass and finally to overthrow the gov- 
ernment during a time of war. 

The Legislature of Indiana refused to receive the message 



Knights of the Golden Circle 109 

of the Governor of the State, and as a rebuke to him for his 
ability and zeal in sustaining the cause of the Union, voted to 
tender the thanks of the General Assembly to Governor Sey- 
mour of New York for the "exalted and patriotic sentiments 
of his message." Governor Seymour condemned the emanci- 
pation proclamation as impolitic, unjust and unconstitutional. 
In the Legislature of Indiana "the President's unprecedented 
usurpations of power were held to be a giant stride towards 
military despotism," and it was proposed that so long as the 
President "persists in his abolition policy in the conduct of 
the war . . . Indiana will not voluntarily contribute another 
man or another dollar, to be used for such wicked, inhuman 
and unholy purposes." These sentiments were appreciated in 
Richmond. Jefferson Davis no doubt believed the emancipa- 
tion proclamation to be unconstitutional, and that its purposes 
were "wicked, inhuman and unholy." In a special message 
he declared his intention to "deliver to the several State au- 
thorities all commissioned officers of the United States that 
may hereafter be captured by our forces, in any of the States 
embraced in the proclamation, that they may be dealt with in 
accordance with the laws of those States provided for the pun- 
ishment of criminals engaged in exciting servile insurrections." 
Fortunately for humanity and for the South this threat was 
not carried into effect. 

Resolutions were introduced in the Indiana Legislature call- 
ing for an armistice of six months, and the assembling at 
Nashville in June of a national convention to settle all difficul- 
ties, which moved the Richmond W/iz'g to say: "We of the 
Confederate States should do what is possible to encourage the 
growth and ascendency of this spirit." After weeks spent in 
denouncing the government, the real purpose of the Indiana 
Legislature was revealed in a bill introduced in the House on 
the 17th of February, "providing for the organization of the 
Indiana militia, for a military tax. and for other matters prop- 
erly connected with the militia of the State." It was designed 
to take from the Governor all military power, and to place it 
in the hands of four State officers, three of whom were 



no A Political History of Slavery 

members of a secret order, sworn to resist the government. All 
efforts to amend the bill were defeated, and on its being or- 
dered to be engrossed, seeing that its passage was inevitable, 
the Union members of the House withdrew. This left that 
body without a quorum, and thus the infamous scheme to 
revolutionize the State and to place it on the confederate side 
failed. The Union members remained at Madison, ready to 
return to their places if the majority would agree to abandon 
their revolutionary purposes, but that being refused the ses- 
sion of the Legislature came to a close without having made 
any appropriations for carrying on the State government, or 
for the relief of sick and wounded soldiers. The full measure 
of Oliver P. Morton's greatness as executive and the depth 
of his patriotism were revealed in this crisis. He became in 
fact the State. He raised money to support the benevolent 
and penal institutions, to pay the expenses of the militia called 
into service to defend the border from invasion, to send sani- 
tary supplies to sick and wounded soldiers in the field and to 
defend the credit of the State by paying the interest on its 
bonded indebtedness, which disloyal ofBcials refused to do. 
Deprived of a treasury, these sums were disbursed with strict 
honesty through a special financial bureau. Thus was In- 
diana kept on the side of the government, and thus was suc- 
cess made possible. 

While this scheming was in progress meetings were held in 
different parts of the State to denounce the government and 
to concert means for resisting the draft. The men who attend- 
ed these meetings generally wore clothes dyed a butternut 
color,' and carried long squirrel rifles. It was not unusual to 
hear cheers for Jefferson Davis and curses for Abraham Lin- 
coln. The effect of the speeches at these meetings was to 
strengthen the determination to resist the government, and to 
continue the employment of the means which had before been 
used to destroy the military power in the field. The most 
dangerous of these means was inciting to desertion under 
promise of armed protection. It was employed with such in- 

> Hence the term " Butternut " as applied to one opposed to the war. 



Knights of the Golden Circle 1 1 1 

dustry that twenty-three hundred Indiana soldiers were in- 
duced to desert in December, 1862.' Some of the methods 
employed were described by Governor Morton. Soldiers who 
returned home on furlough were wheedled and deceived by 
Knights of the Golden Circle. Those who avowed themselves 
Democrats were seduced into that conspiracy upon the false 
plea of reorganizing the Democratic party, and when soured 
against the government were sent back to spread the poison 
by organizing new circles. Good, honest men, who came 
home full of zeal and who intended to return, were thus de- 
ceived. They overstayed their time and were publicly dis= 
graced as deserters. "Who," asked the indignant Governor, 
''is most culpable, the deluded soldier or the hypocritical po- 
litical villain who deceived him?" John O. Brown, an In- 
diana soldier, was then under sentence of death for obeying 
the dictation of politicians who inveigled himo '° Which,'' 
asked Morton, "was most worthy of death?"' The 109th 
Illinois Regiment, found to be a ''Circle," was disbanded by 
General Grant. Its colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major, 
and nine companies out of ten were sworn members of the 
order. The ist, 2d, 3d and 5th Indiana cavalry had been 
affected by it. An artillery company at Indianapolis had 
been destroyed by ito Witnesses cited to appear before the 
United States Court claimed their common law right to re= 
fuse to testify because they would criminate themselves — re= 
fused to testify because they would convict themselves of a 
conspiracy against the government," Thus this secret order 
was a public enemy that must needs be throttled or it would 
destroy the Republic. 

The soldiers of Indiana and Ohio in the field were the first 
to discover the insidious meaning of the revival of party 

' Many letters were given to the press by indignant soldiers, the purport of 
which was that " This was an abolition war, and that it was wrong to fight in it ; 
that all of the soldier's relatives thought he should come home, and if he did he 
had nothing to fear, as they were prepared to protect him, no matter what force 
was sent to arrest him." — W. H. H. Terrell's Indiana in the War of the Rebellion. 

^ Speech of Governor Oliver P. Morton at a meeting of citizens in Pike's Opera 
House, Cincinnati, Feb. 23, 1863. 



112 A Political History of Slavery 

politics in 1862-3, and the first to sound the alarm. They ap- 
pealed in letters to friends at home, and finally in public 
addresses remonstrated in eloquent and indignant language 
against the fatuous policy which, if persisted in, could only 
result in the triumph of secession. Reference to the address 
of the Ohio soldiers of the Western Army "To the People of 
Ohio " ' will indicate the temper of all such addresses. 

This address exposed the sophistries of the peace men, who 
were spoken of in the South as the allies of the Confederacy, 
and called attention to the fact that physical power had been 
invoked to destroy the government, and could be overcome 
only by physical force. If there was honesty and purity in 
human motives, they were to be found among the long-endur- 
ing soldiers. They had offered their lives to save the Repub- 
lic. Were they now to be deserted at home and dishonored 
before the world? 

The Army of the West is in terrible earnest — earnest to conquer 
and destroy armed rebels — earnest to meet force with force — earnest 
in its detestation of cowardly traitors at home — earnest in will and 
power to overcome all who desire the nation's ruin. 

Ohio's hundred thousand soldiers in the field, citizens at home, 
potent in either capacity, ask their fathers, brethren, and friends, 
by their firesides in their peaceful homes, to hear and heed this ap- 
peal, and to put an end to covert treason at home, more dangerous 
now to our national existence than the presence of the armed hosts 
of misguided rebels in the field. 

The soldiers who signed this address had won victories and 
suffered defeats. They had passed through the awful storm of 
shot and shell that raged for days near Murfreesboro, joined 
in the shout of triumph which announced the victory on the 
2d of January, and shared with the brave and noble Rose- 
crans the glory of that great event which made the Army of 
the Cumberland immortal. They were in deadly earnest, and 
no Pharisaic political philosophy, mawkish sensibility for 

'Dated Feb. ist, 1863. 



Spirit of Men in the Field 113 

former party associations, or threatened ascendency of the 
African race, could shake their purpose.' 

These appeals of the soldiers touched the hearts of the great 
North and stimulated the loyal people to new and greater 
effort than before. They found recruits for the thinned ranks 
of the old regiments, organized new regiments, ministered to 
the sick and wounded in the hospitals, multiplied supplies 
which were distributed by the Sanitary Commission or State 
agents, spent their money freely for the comfort of the brave 
men and their families, and were equally active in the dis- 
charge of their home civic duties, one of which was to see that 
the foul blows of secret traitors and peace men failed of their 
purpose. Enthusiastic mass meetings were held in many of the 

' It was during this period they sang with indescribable jollity the following 
song composed on the borders of Stone River, in which is condensed the whole 
argument. Our narrative of the political and armed conflict — blended in 1863 
into a desperate struggle between the adherents of national unity and the advo- 
cates of a changeable league of sovereign States — would be incomplete without 
this expression of the sentiments of the Union soldiers : 

THE OLD UNION WAGQN. 

BY M. I. STERLOZIER. 

In Uncle Sam's Dominion, in eighteen sixty-one. 

The fight between Secession and Union was begun ; 

The South declared they 'd have the " rights " which Uncle Sam denied. 

Or in their Sesesh Wagon they 'd all take a ride. 

Chorus : Hurrah for the wagon — the old Union Wagon! 
We '11 stick to our wagon and all take a ride ! 

The makers of our wagon were men of solid wit, 

They made it out of " Charter Oak," that would n't rot or split. 

Its wheels are of material the strongest and the best. 

And two are named the North and South, and two the East and West. 

Our wagon bed is strong enough for any " revolution " — 

In fact, 't is the " hulV of the " old Constitution " ; 

Her coupling 's strong, her axle 's long, and anywhere you get her. 

No monarch's frown can " back her down " — no traitor can upset her. 

This good old Union Wagon, the nations all admired ; 

Her wheels had run for four score years and never once been " tired" 

Her passengers were happy as along her way she whirled. 

For the good old Union Wagon was the glory of the world. 



114 A Political History of Slavery 

important centres. On the 23d of February, in Cincinnati, 
there was a great popular demonstration in which the people 
of Indiana participated, which was followed by a mass meet- 
ing in the State House yard at Indianapolis on the 26th, where 
Andrew Johnson spoke at length on the issues of the day.' 
At Cincinnati two large halls failed to accommodate the peo- 
ple. The meeting at Pike's Opera House was presided over 
by the Hon. William S. Groesbeck. Among the distinguished 
speakers were Governors Morton and Tod, ex-Governors Den- 
nison and Wright, and Henry Stanbery. Among the songs 
sung by the Indianapolis Glee Club was one written by T. 
Buchanan Read, who was present. 

But when old Abraham took command, the South wheel got displeased, 
Because i\ie public fat was gone that kept her axle greased ; 
And when he gathered up the reins and started on his route. 
She plunged into secession and knocked some " fellers " out ! 

Now while in this secession mire the wheel was sticking tightly, 

Some Tory passengers got mad and cursed the driver slightly ; 

But Abraham " could n't see it " — so he did n't heed their clatter — 

" There 's too much black mud on the wheel," says he — ' ' that 's ivhat 'j the matter." 

So Abram gave them notice that in eighteen sixty-three. 
Unless the rebels " dried it up," he 'd set their niggers free ; 
And then the man that led the van to fight against his nation 
Would drop his gun and home he 'd run, to fight against starvation. 

When Abram said he 'd free the slaves that furnished their supplies, 
It opened Northern traitors' mouths and Southern traitors' eyes. 
" The slaves," said they, " will run away if you thus rashly free them ! " 
But Abram ' ' guessed, perhaps, they '</ best go home and oversee them ! " 

Around our Union Wagon, with shoulders to the wheel, 

A million soldiers rally, with hearts as true as steel ; 

And of all the generals, high or low, that help to save the nation. 

There 's none that strikes a harder blow than General Emancipation ! 

Sung to the tune Waiting for the Wagon. The confederates had a song en- 
titled The Southern Wagon which was a favorite in their armies. The Union 
soldiers wished the destruction of slavery. "I speak what I do know, when I 
say that the army here is almost a unit for the emancipation proclamation." — 
Stone River Cor. Cincinnati Commercial. Jan. 5., 1863. 

' Gov. Johnson began to speak at 12 o'clock and closed at 3 in the afternoon. 
It was estimated that 40,000 people were present. 



I 



The Cincinnati Resolutions 115 

The speech of Mr. Stanbery was a notable reply to the con- 
stitutional objections to the acts of the administration, which 
some conservative men urged in justification of their course in 
withdrawing their support from the government. While they 
were philosophizing the country was perishing. Was the na- 
tion made for the Constitution, or the Constitution for the 
nation? Is not the life more than meat; is not the body more 
than raiment? The Constitution is the supreme law of the 
land; but there is one law of the land still more supreme, and 
that is the safety of the Republic itself — salus popiili est su- 
prema lex. 

These constitutional Democrats say, if the war cannot be carried 
on according to the terms of the Constitution, it shall not be car- 
ried on at all, though the country be lost. He would ask them if 
they wanted Mr. Lincoln to carry it on according to the Constitu- 
tion? What would be the consequence? The Constitution says, 
every man found in arms against the United States, who levies war 
against the United States, or gives aid or assistance to its enemies, 
shall be hung. Do these constitutional Democrats want to hang all 
the Southern rebels, and perhaps some of their own number along 
with them? Did they find fault with Mr. Lincoln because he did 
not follow out the constitutional injunction and hang the traitors? He 
had not done that, but when captured with arms in their hands had 
sent them back in exchange for our own honest and true men found 
in captivity. We are obliged to forego constitutional provisions at 
every step we take in war, so that a profound philosopher of modern 
times has said well, that at some time to preserve itself, every nation 
may be bound to violate its own fundamental law. 

The resolutions in response to the address of the Ohio 
soldiers in camp on Stone River, read by Rufus King, are a 
part of the history of the time, as they exhibit the spirit and 
determination with which the loyal people of the North 
thenceforth carried on the war: 

Resolved, i. That the present attitude of our country demands of 
all patriots that they commemorate this anniversary of the birth of 



ii6 A Political History of Slavery- 

George Washington by renewed pledges to perpetuate the Union 
and to remain steadfast to the principles of the man who was "first 
in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." 

2. That the loyal people of Cincinnati send back to the soldiers 
of Ohio, on Stone River, greetings of heartfelt admiration and 
gratitude for their deeds of valor against the enemy, and for their 
timely warning against the secret foe in our midst. We sympathize 
in every word of their earnest and burning appeal. With them we 
proclaim that the South began this war, and it is for the South and 
not for us, to give it up; and that they who oppose the war or coun- 
sel cessation, while there is a hostile camp in the South, are enemies 
of the Republic, and deserve the jeers and execrations which the 
rebels hurl back upon them. And, with our brave soldiers, believ- 
ing that peace is not to be effected by any compromise — that no 
peace can or ought to be made by any compromise with the perfidi- 
ous conspirators who have violated all faith and trampled upon all 
laws — and that this war must be fought out, we declare that we will 
unfalteringly support and maintain it, and the blood and desolation 
of this causeless rebellion be upon the heads of those who began it! 

3. That their fathers and our fathers wisely and gloriously made 
this country one — and to do it counted not its cost of blood and 
treasure; their loyal sons will imitate their patriotism, and with the 
blessing of God will maintain that country inviolate against all foes, 
at home or abroad, be the consequences what they may. 

4. That for us the Mississippi must roll unbroken to the Gulf; 
nor will we be divided from the East. We will fight this war not 
only to defend our Constitution and laws, but because we and our 
posterity have no other security or hope of peace but in the integrity 
of the territory which God and our fathers united. 

5. That submission to the constituted laws and authorities is the 
only basis of free government and society, and that they who take 
arms against them without cause, and they who aid, comfort or 
counsel enemies in war are alike guilty of betraying their country, 
and in every age have been justly branded with the scorn of man- 
kind. 

6. That he who cannot distinguish between his country and its 
temporary rulers, but would sacrifice or hazard the one from disaffec- 
tion to the other, is unfit to be the citizen of a free country. 

7. That therefore to guard against the dangers of faction and se- 



The Cincinnati Resolutions 117 

dition which artful men, equally dangerous whether they are actual 
emissaries and allies of the rebels or not, are striving to foment 
among us, we call upon all good citizens to mark and frown upon 
all who persist in this work — to abandon all other distinctions and 
henceforth, recognize no division but between those who are for 
and those who are against the government ; and whether the men in 
power please us or not to sustain them until others are put in their 
places. 

8. That forgetting all party divisions, and owning no other duty in 
the present crisis than loyalty to the Union, we will unite and act 
upon the motto of Decatur — '*Our Country — may she always be 
right — but our Country always ! " 

The Union men of the border slave States, although not 
generally favoring Mr. Lincoln's proposition suggesting eman- 
cipation with compensation and colonization, and regarding 
the proclamation as impolitic, opposed all peace propositions 
founded upon an armistice. Stopping the war meant placing 
them at the mercy of vengeful enemies and it also meant 
their humiliation. The Union men of Kentucky, said John 
W. Finnell, had seen too much of the shameless conduct 
of the confederates while in that State to desire to cast their 
fortunes with the rebellion. While disapproving of the policy 
of the government they declared "their unfaltering devotion 
to the Constitution and the Union and their fixed and unalter- 
able purpose to make Kentucky the last State of the Union to 
desert either." * The loyal men of Maryland, said Governor 
Bradford, had no parties to sustain, no parties to create, no 
parties to revive. They had but one ambition and one 
thought, and that was the Union, its restoration, its preserva- 
tion." An armistice! Peace for a month, for a year, for five 
years, wars for generations and anarchy to the end of time.' 

Many Democrats dissented from the efforts of the active 
leaders of their party to embarrass the government while 

' Letter to Gov. Crittenden, Jan. 26, 1863. MS. 

' Speech at a banquet given to Gen. R. C. Schenck in Baltimore, Jan. 22, 1863. 
— Baltimore American. 

^ Henry Winter Davis. Hid. 



ii8 A Political History of Slavery 

engaged in a war for the Union. "This war must go on," ex- 
claimed John Van Buren, "and those who would attempt to 
stop it will be carried away by the torrent." The Missouri 
Republican ' warned the Democratic party that by allowing 
itself to become the champion or apologist of disunion, it 
encouraged the South to persist in its original demand and 
rendered peace more and more remote. 

I wash my hands [exclaimed one of the most distinguished 
Democrats* of the day] of that miserable doctrine too often 
inculcated here, that in such a time as this there is such a thing 
as loyalty to the government and disloyalty to those in power. 
Sir, there is but one true loyalty, and that is unconditional adher- 
ence to, and support of, those who stand at the helm of the govern- 
ment, placed there by the people to direct, whether in calm or storm, 
the great affairs of state. 

Resolutions of inquiry as to the imprisonment of persons by 
order of the War Department, and propositions for an armis- 
tice, were frequently introduced in the House or the Senate, 
all designed to' make a political record, or to embarrass the 
government. The debates thereon are valuable only as show- 
ing the conflict of political opinions, the extent to which ob- 
struction to the prosecution of the war was carried, and the 
efforts of honest men to sink party in the duty of the hour. 
It was the almost daily practice of Mr. Vallandigham in the 
House and of Mr. Powell in the Senate to denounce the 
President for violations of the Constitution and for perverting 
the objects of the war, under the influence of New England, 
from a restoration of the Union and the preservation of the 
Constitution to the emancipation of the negroes and the en- 
slavement of the whites; or, to declare that the war was a 
failure, and that the national army and navy ought to be in- 
stantly withdrawn from the South. The President was a 
tyrant and a usurper, and had been guilty of infamous crimes. 

' February 15, 1863. 
''Senator Joseph A. Wright of Indiana. See Cong. Globe, 3d Sess., Thirty- 
seventh Cong., p. 64. Also pp. 202-204. 



Obstruction in Congress 119 

He had permitted his soldiers to rob and murder peaceable 
citizens ; he had caused the arrest of citizens and their incar- 
ceration in loathsome prisons where they were subjected to 
inhuman treatment, and he had required hundreds of them so 
held, "as a condition upon which they might be released, to 
take illegal oaths arbitrarily prescribed by himself or his 
agents " ; he had attempted to destroy the freedom of speech 
and of the press; "he had interfered with the administration 
of justice in the State courts by violently forcing the judges 
to adjourn, and dispersing their grand juries, and by breaking 
open jails and releasing prisoners confined under regular ju- 
dicial process for felonies and other crimes " ; he had struck 
down the elective franchise; he had given his assent to acts 
of Congress appropriating enormous sums to purchase the 
freedom of slaves, and without constitutional authority had 
aided in freeing the slaves of the District of Columbia. 

With manifestations of delight Senator Powell caused to be 
read a resolution formulated by a caucus of Kentucky Demo- 
crats, instructing the Senators and requesting the Representa- 
tives in Congress "to oppose any further aid in the prosecution 
of the war by furnishing either men or money." He believed 
this resolution and the indictment of the President for usur- 
pation expressed the sentiments of nineteen-twentieths of the 
Democratic people of Kentucky.* Mr, Vallandigham, rejoic- 
ing over the mediation proposed by Napoleon HI., declared 
that it ought to be met in a spirit as cordial and ready as that 
in which it was proffered. 

It would be churlish to refuse. Certainly it is not consistent with 
the former dignity of this government to ask for mediation; neither, 
Sir, would it befit its ancient magnanimity to reject it. As proposed 
by the Emperor of France, I would accept it at once. Now is the 
auspicious moment. It is the speediest, easiest, most graceful mode 
of suspending hostilities." 

Mr. Bayard of Delaware and other conservative Senators, 

' Cong. Globe, Feb. 21, 1863, p. ri6o, et seq. 
^ Ibid. Appendix, p. 59. 



I20 A Political History of Slavery 

discussed the war issues — all questions of the day were war 
issues — in different temper; avoiding a commitment to the 
peace policy of the radical element, but pretty uniformly 
withholding support from the government. The division in 
Congress, therefore, was on party lines, the Unionists sup- 
porting the administration, the Democratic minority oppos- 
ing. Mr. Bayard believed there should be the same latitude 
of discussion in a time of war as in a time of peace. He 
thought it atrocious to talk about loyalty to an administration 
in a government which is founded on the will of the people, 
and is a free government. In the matter of suspension of the 
writ of habeas corpus he held that the power to suspend the 
writ was legislative, not executive — that Congress could not 
delegate the power to the President. That government was 
not a free government which vested in the executive power 
the right to imprison a citizen at will, without any publicity 
or any knowledge of the charge on which he was confined, 
and which could withhold all information as to the causes of 
arrest on the pretence that the public interests forbade the 
communication of the reasons for the arrest.' 

The measure providing for enrolling and calling out the 
national forces also was condemned by Mr. Bayard, who held 
that it was not within the powers confided by the Constitution 
to Congress; and that if it were it was utterly inexpedient, 
and not only inexpedient, but dangerous as regards the liberty 
of the citizen and the security of the States. The reserved force 
of the nation was the militia of the several States, which could 
be called into service by the President under provisions that 
Congress might adopt for that purpose ; but when that militia 
was called into service it was as organized bodies of men, to 
be commanded by officers appointed by the States and to be 
disciplined, under the discipline Congress prescribed, by the 
State authorities alone.'' The power under the proposed 
measure was power to raise an army by conscription. What 
was such a delegation of power but making a dictator of the 
President of the United States? ' 

' Cong. Globe, Dec, 1862, p. 65. "^ Ibid., p, 1363. ^ Ibid., p. 1365. 



I 



Obstruction in Congress 121 

One who studies the history of this time will not fail to 
contrast the objections interposed by the Democratic minority 
of the North to the only certain means for recruiting the 
strength of the national forces with the appeal made by 
Jefferson Davis to the Legislature of Mississippi in behalf of 
his acts under the conscription law of the Confederate States. 
The veterans, said he, who had gone through many hard- 
fought battles looked to their countrymen at home to supply 
the places which had been made vacant by the deaths of their 
comrades. "Their ranks must be filled, humanity demands 
it. It was time for patriots to throw off the shackles of private 
interest, fly to the rescue of these heroes whom the ravages 
of war had yet spared, and consecrate themselves to the most 
sacred cause on earth." ' All such appeals made to the men 
of peace in the loyal States to succor the regiments fighting 
for the Union fell upon deaf ears. Desertions were incited 
and encouraged ; resistance was made to the enrollment, and 
officers in the discharge of their duty were assassinated. 

The Union majority in Congress who originated the various 
measures for strengthening and supporting the army and navy, 
and for sustaining and encouraging the President, wasted but 
little time in debate. Nor did they always remain silent 
under the bold and defiant accusations of the minority. Mr. 
Wilson of Massachusetts declared that as there had never 
been a rebellion so causeless, so false, so treacherous and 
wicked as this, so there never had been any civil war in which 
those who administered the government had acted with so 
much humanity, so much consideration and so much tender- 
ness. 

In spite of all this, when we are struggling for life, when our 
armies are in the field, when the question is not determined whether 
this nation shall survive or perish, the Congress of the United States 
is to be the theatre in which the government is to be arraigned for 
doing its duty to save the country.* 

' Speech at Jackson, Dec. 26, 1862. 

^ Cong. Globe, Dec. 9, 1862, p. 27. It was left to Mr. Shellabarger of Ohio to 
read to those members who were declaring that the President by consenting to 



122 A Political History of Slavery 

On another occasion, stung by the boldness with which Senator 
Powell declared the purpose of the Democracy to be to op- 
pose giving any more men or money for the prosecution of 
the war, in the language of the Kentucky resolution, he ex- 
claimed; "Sir, the man who conceived and proclaimed that 
proposition is a traitor at heart, and he would have arms in 
his hands were he not a coward." ' 

There was a difference of opinion among the friends of the 
administration, as explained in treating of the Merryman 
case, as to where the power was lodged to suspend the writ of 
habeas corpus in times of rebellion and insurrection. Mr. 
Stevens of Pennsylvania and Senators Trumbull and Sherman 
held, with the best jurists, that the writ of habeas corpus was 
never intended by the Constitution to be suspended except 
in pursuance of an act of Congress. To cure the defect of 
legislation and to protect the President, who had acted solely 
to save the country in the midst of peril, a law was passed 
during the third session of the Thirty-seventh Congress cloth- 
ing the President with the power to suspend the writ during 
the rebellion in any part of the United States, whenever, in 
his judgment, the public safety should require it. Provision 
was made for hearings in the United States courts, inquiries 
by grand juries, etc. In case the latter failed to indict the 
prisoners, judges were required to discharge them from cus- 
tody. It was made the duty of all military oflficers to obey 
and execute the orders of the court. The President and his 
subordinates were protected from liability in civil or criminal 

arbitrary arrests had " struck down at a blow every badge of republican govern- 
ment," and was guilty of acts of despotism which the Czar dare not do, several 
chapters in the history of the United States. During the time of General Wash- 
ington military arrests were made almost daily. Some were charged with being 
"inimical to the liberties of America," as in the case of Connolly and others of 
Maryland ; others for " advising men to lay down their arms," as in the case of 
Belmires and others of the same State; others for being "disaffected in the 
cause of American freedom," as in the case of twenty Friends of Philadelphia, 
arrested and imprisoned at Winchester, Virginia. — Cong. Globe, Appendix, Jan. 27, 
1863, p. 67. Mr. Jefferson's approval of General Wilkinson's arbitrary arrests 
at New Orleans at the time of the Burr conspiracy is another case in point. 
^ Ibid., p. 1184. 



West Virginia Made a State 123 

prosecutions. This measure was introduced in the House 
by Mr. Stevens and was perfected in the Senate by Mr. Trum- 
bull, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The opposition 
held that Congress could not delegate its power to the Presi- 
dent, that the measure was a dangerous invasion of personal 
liberty, and "a deliberate, palpable and dangerous violation 
of the Constitution, and therefore utterly null and void." 
A protest, embodying this view, drawn up by Mr. Pendleton 
of Ohio and signed by himself and thirty-six other members, 
was read in the House, and on motion of Mr. Stevens laid 
on the table. 

The proposition to admit West Virginia as a State revealed 
a wide difference of opinion as to the propriety of the act, and 
as to the legal status of the States in rebellion, which after- 
wards, when "reconstruction" was the absorbing question of 
the hour, divided the legislature from the executive. The 
people of West Virginia having observed the form of pro- 
cedure usual in case of the admission of a new State, the 
Governor called the Legislature of Virginia together and that 
body on the 13th of May, 1862, gave its consent to "the for- 
mation of a new State within the jurisdiction of the said State 
of Virginia." A fortnight later a copy of the proceedings and 
a memorial of the Legislature were laid before the Senate of 
the United States, and referred to the Committee on Terri- 
tories. A bill providing for admission was promptly re- 
ported by Mr. Wade. This bill, as it finally received the 
sanction of the Senate, contained an important provision, 
which stipulated that "the children of slaves born in the State 
after the 4th day of July, 1863, shall be free; all slaves within 
the said State who shall at that time be under the age of ten 
years shall be free when they arrive at the age of twenty-one 
years; all slaves over ten and under twenty-one shall be free 
at the age of twenty-five years; and no slave shall be per- 
mitted to come into the State for permanent residence 
therein." This condition was to be ratified by the convention 
which framed the constitution, and by the people at an elec- 
tion held for that purpose, and, upon due certification of the 



124 A Political History of Slavery 

approval of the condition to the President of the United 
States, he was authorized to issue his proclamation declaring 
West Virginia to be a State of the Union. 

The opposition to the bill in the House was more strenuous 
than in the Senate. Mr, Conway of Kansas, after calling in 
question the validity of the Pierpont government, proceeded 
to censure Mr. Lincoln. He said he had serious reason to 
beheve that it was the intention of the President to encourage 
the formation of State organizations in all the seceded States, 
and that a few individuals were to assume State powers 
wherever a military encampment could be effected in any of 
the rebellious districts. The radically revolutionary character 
of this scheme meant the utter subversion of our constitutional 
system. He believed the true policy of the government with 
regard to the seceded States was to hold them as common 
territory whenever and wherever our armies extended over 
them. This would obviate the dangers which the presidential 
policy would bring upon the country. Mr. Dawes of Massa- 
chusetts declared that consent to the division of Virginia was 
confined to the people residing within the limits of the terri- 
tory embraced in the proposed new State, and therefore the 
bill did not comply with the spirit of the Constitution. If, he 
added, "the remaining portions of Virginia are under duress, 
and while under duress this claim of consent is made, it seems 
to me that it is a mere mockery of the Constitution." 

Mr. Stevens would vote to admit West Virginia as a new 
State, "not by virtue of any provision of the Constitution, 
but under our absolute power which the laws of war give us 
in the circumstances in which we are placed." His argument 
touched on the policy of dealing with the seceded States. 
We had by an ill-considered act declared a blockade of the 
Southern ports and had thus recognized those States as a 
belligerent power, entitled to all of the privileges and subject 
to all of the rules of war, according to the law of nations.* 

' If instead of declaring a blockade of the Southern ports, Congress had repealed 
the laws making them ports of entry, " there would have been no need of a 
blockade. No nation would have had a right to send vessels there, even though 



West Virginia Made a State 125 

Now, then, Sir, these rebellious States being a Power, by the ac- 
knowledgment of European nations and of our own nation, subject 
and entitled to belligerent rights, they become subject to all the 
rules of war. I hold that the Constitution has no longer the least 
effect upon them. It is idle to tell me that the obligations of an in- 
strument are binding on one party while they are repudiated by the 
other. It is one of the principles of law universal, and of justice 
as universal, that obligations personal or national must, in order to 
be binding, be mutual and be equally acknowledged and admitted 
by all parties. Whenever that mutuality ceases to exist it binds 
neither party. There is another principle just as universal; it is 
this: when parties become belligerent, in the technical sense of the 
word, the war between them abrogates all compacts, treaties, and 
constitutions which may have existed between them before the war 
commenced. . . . Hence I hold that none of the States now 
in rebellion are entitled to the protection of the Constitution, and I 
am grieved when I hear those high in authority sometimes talking 
of the constitutional difficulties about enforcing measures against 
this belligerent Power, and the next moment disregarding every 
vestige and semblance of the Constitution by acts which alone are 
arbitrary. I hope I do not differ with the executive in the views 
which I advocate. But I see the executive one day saying, "you 
shall not take the property of rebels to pay the debts which the 
rebels have brought upon the Northern States." Why? Because 
the Constitution is in the way. And the next day I see him ap- 
pointing a military Governor of Virginia, a military Governor of 
Tennessee and some other places. Where does he find anything in 
the Constitution to warrant that? 

Mr. Bingham replied to Mr. Stevens in an argument of so 
much force as to carry the House with him. He held that 
the power to reorganize their State government at pleasure is 
inherent in the people, and does not exist by virtue of grants 
of the Constitution. He agreed with the proposition of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania that the majority of the citizens 

we might not have had a ship of war within a hundred miles." And again: " We 
cannot blockade our own ports. We blockade an enemy's ports. The very fact 
of declaring this blockade recognized them as a belligerent Power." — Stevens in 
House, Dec. 9, 1862. Cong, Globe. 



126 A Political History of Slavery 

of the United States within any State are the State, subject, 
however, to this limitation, that the majority act in subordi- 
nation to the federal Constitution and to the rights of every 
citizen of the United States guaranteed thereby. Can the 
minority of the people of a State by the act of the majority 
committing treason and taking up arms against the federal 
government, be stripped of their right within the State of 
protection, under State laws, in their homes and in their per- 
sons, even against the hand of the assassin? Where the ma- 
jority become rebels in arms, the minority are the State, and 
have a right to administer the laws, and to maintain the au- 
thority of the State government and to that end to elect a 
State Legislature and executive, by which they may call 
upon the federal government for protection "against domestic 
violence," according to the express guarantee of the Constitu- 
tion. Mr. Bingham cited Mr. Madison in support of his con- 
stitutional view with happy effect. 

Members who had doubts about the propriety of dividing 
one of the original States were moved by sympathy, as was 
Mr. Maynard of Tennessee, to vote for admission. He had 
recently visited West Virginia. 

I found there [said he] a people loyal and devoted to your flag, 
desiring to be formed into a State by themselves, with power to 
manage their own local and domestic affairs. They spoke with feel- 
ing and deep entreaty upon this subject. They said that if you keep 
them bound to the dead carcass that lies floating many a rood on the 
eastern side of the Blue Ridge, their fate for long, long years, if not 
for generations and ages, is sealed. They begged to be disen- 
thralled.' 

At last the opportunity came to the people west of the Blue 
Ridge to secure what they had pleaded for in the State con- 
vention of 1829-30 and again in 1847. 

' For debates on the partition of Virginia, see Cong. Globe, 2d and 3d Sessions, 
Thirty-seventh Congress. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE TREASON OF VALLANDIGHAM — NEUTRALS — OFFER OF 
AMNESTY 

THE moral authority of a party leader in a democracy, 
arising from the confidence reposed in him, carries with 
it the responsibility of so using his influence that the 
public good shall be conserved while promoting the ascendency 
of his party. If this principle be applicable to political leader- 
ship in normal times when the arts of peace are followed, how 
much greater becomes the responsibility in times of commo- 
tion and of civil war! A conscientious leader, feeling the 
weight of this responsibility, in the midst of excitement will 
counsel moderation and prudence, but never appeal to the 
prejudices and passions of men which, when aroused, lead to 
turbulence and blind violence. For nothing is truer than the 
observation of Hobbes, that "The passions of men, which 
asunder are moderate as the heat of one brand, in an assembly 
are like many brands that inflame one another, especially when 
they blow one another with orations to the setting of the com- 
monwealth on fire, under pretence of counselling it." 

In the anxious days of 1863 representatives of these two 
classes of leaders were appealing to the people — one class 
appealing to the reason of the citizen, the other to his preju- 
dices: one seeking to restore the Union by sustaining the 
government, the other striving to create a political revolution 
for party ends. One of the most conspicuous of the first class, 
who did not approve of the policy of the administration, was 
the venerable John J. Crittenden. He believed that the 



128 A Political History of Slavery 

rebellion was without just cause, as the property and rights and 
liberties of no man had been encroached upon. Therefore he 
had been from the first in favor of the prosecution of the war, 
for upon it depended the stability of the greatest government 
the world had known. "It involves," said he to his con- 
stituents, "to a mighty extent, the destiny of mankind, the 
liberty and welfare of the human race," What war could be 
more just? He declared that notwithstanding the confiscation 
act, the emancipation proclamation and emancipation laws, 
notwithstanding the policy of raising negro armies, and the talk 
about the equality with white men of negro soldiers, against 
which he voted, he was still in favor of the prosecution of the 
war. While the great enemy of his country was before him 
he was still for the war without an armistice, regardless of for- 
eign intervention — though it were necessary to fight all the 
world — till the rebellion was put down. "If you offer no re- 
sistance, you surrender to it, and lose your manhood. But if 
you fight it out, we can easily repair all the damage which the 
people in their judgment may think has been committed on 
the Constitution and the laws." ' 

We have seen what Mr. Vallandigham, Fernando Wood 
and other avowed peace leaders of the revived Democratic 
party proposed as measures to overthrow the government, 
even to the extent of inviting foreign intervention with its 
untold evils. Encouraged by a temporary political triumph 
in 1862 and the formidable military power of the Confederacy, 
these leaders planned to bring hostilities in the field to an end 
by encouraging desertions and preventing the filling up of the 
old regiments, and to restore the Democratic party to the 
control of the government by the election of its candidate for 
President in 1864. Immediately after the adjournment of 
the Thirty-seventh Congress, Mr. Vallandigham began a pol- 
itical canvass to arouse the most determined opposition to 
the government. He spoke at Philadelphia, at New York 
and Albany, in Connecticut, and various cities in his own 
State. In all of his speeches the government was vehemently 

* Speech at Lexington, Cincinnati Commercial, May 13th. 



I 



Action of Peace Democrats 129 

assailed, the objects of the war were misrepresented and its 
prosecution denounced. He asserted, in the face of Mr. Lin- 
coln's most solemn public utterances, and the declarations of 
representative conventions, that the objects of the party in 
power in the prosecution of the war were the abolition of 
slavery and the subjugation of the South, and that if these 
could not be obtained it would disrupt the Union; and that 
the enrollment act and the law authorizing the suspension of 
the writ of habeas corpus during the war destroyed the liberties 
of the people and established a despotism. By embracing 
within the scope of partisan invective the provost marshals 
who were charged with the duties of enrolling the names of 
persons liable to military service and of arresting deserters, as 
"the minions of the tyrant Lincoln," men like Vallandigham 
provided the ignorant and the thoughtless with an excuse for 
going a step further and forcibly resisting the execution of the 
law, or for evading the obligations of citizenship. 

Order No. 38, issued by General Burnside to put a stop to 
acts inciting to desertion and impeding the obtaining of re- 
cruits for the army, excited much animosity. The reasons 
given by General Burnside for issuing the order were many, 
but this may be cited as the principal one. He said : 

If I were to indulge in wholesale criticisms of the policy of the 
government, it would demoralize the army under my command, and 
every friend of his country would call me a traitor. If the officers 
or soldiers were to indulge in such criticisms it would weaken the 
army to the extent of their influence; and if this criticism were uni- 
versal in the army, it would cause it to be broken to pieces, the 
government to be divided, our homes to be invaded, and anarchy 
to reign. . . . If it is my duty and the duty of the troops to avoid 
saying anything that would weaken the army, by preventing a single 
recruit from joining the ranks, by bringing the laws of Congress 
into disrepute, or by causing dissatisfaction in the ranks, it is equally 
the duty of every citizen in the department to avoid the same evil. 

This order enraged Mr. Vallandigham, and he not only pub- 
licly denounced it, in a speech at Mount Vernon, May ist. 



I30 A Political History of Slavery 

as "a base usurpation of arbitrary power," but he defied it and 
invited his hearers to resist it. "The sooner the people inform 
the minions of this usurped power that they will not submit 
to such restrictions upon their liberties, the better." 

Warming up as he proceeded in his arraignment of the 
government, he counselled against an acquiescence in the new 
military law. He warned his hearers that "an attempt would 
shortly be made to enforce the conscription act " ; that "they 
should remember that this was not a war for the preservation 
of the Union " ; that "it was a wicked abolition war, and that 
if those in authority were allowed to accomplish their pur- 
poses, the people would be deprived of their liberties and a 
monarchy be established," and that as for himself, "he was 
resolved that he would never be a priest to minister upon the 
altar upon which his country was being sacrificed." This speech 
led to the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham, and his arraignment be- 
fore a military commission by order of General Burnside. The 
arrest, which was made in the night, caused great excitement 
in Dayton and intensified the feeling of bitterness existing be- 
tween the loyal citizens and the followers of Mr. Vallandigham. 

The prisoner submitted no defence to the commission which 
he declared had no right to try him, but he cross-examined 
the witnesses. He brought out the fact (which was used in 
extenuation) that notwithstanding his denunciatory language 
he had said the remedy for the evils was in the ballot-box and 
the courts. In analyzing the speeches of Mr. Vallandigham, 
Hon. Aaron F. Perry, the eminent counsel for the govern- 
ment, touched on this cautious reference to the ballot-box: 
"It cannot be claimed that the motive was to influence 
electors, because the argument does not fit that motive. It 
fits to insurrection, and that only." And this must be the 
judgment of any one that studies the speeches, and weighs the 
acts, of Mr. Vallandigham during and immediately preceding 
the war. In i860 he declared that in the sectional controversy 
his sympathies were wholly with the South. His remarks on 
the conscription bill in the House of Representatives fore- 
shadowed his course before the people. 



The Arrest of Vallandigham 131 

Have a care [said he], I entreat you, that you do not press 
these measures too far. I shall do nothing to stir up an already 
excited people — not because of any fear of your petty provost mar- 
shals but because I desire to see no violence or revolution in the 
North or West. But I warn you now, that whenever against the 
will of the people and to perpetuate power and office in the popular 
government which they have taken from you, you undertake to en- 
force this bill, and, like the destroying angel in Egypt, enter every 
house for the first-born sons of the people — remember Poland. You 
cannot and will not be permitted to establish a military despotism. 

And did these words echo the thoughts of Marcus Antonius, 
who once played upon the passions of the multitude? "Good 
men agitate; obscure men begin real revolutions; great men 
finally direct and control them." ' 

If those who honored him, asked Mr. Perry, could not be 
incited to fight against a government by persuading them it 
was making an unjust and cruel war to crush out liberty, how 
else could he expect to incite them? If he did not hope to 
persuade them to join their sympathies and efforts with the 
enemies of the United States, by convincing them that these 
enemies were in the right, fighting and suffering to prevent 
the overthrow of liberty, standing up against wickedness and 
cruelty, what must he have thought of his audience? 

All insurrections have their pretexts. The man who furnishes 
these is more guilty than the man who believes them and acts on 
them. If the statements of Vallandigham were true, the pretexts 
were ample, not merely as pretexts, but as justification of insurrec- 
tion. They were more: they were incitements which it would be 
disgraceful to resist and which human nature generally has no 
power to resist. 

The commission found Mr. Vallandigham guilty and sen- 
tenced him to close confinement in a United States fort during 
the continuance of war. General Burnside named Fort War- 
ren in Boston harbor. Two days after this Hon. George E. 
Pugh of his counsel applied to Judge Leavitt of the United 

' Cong. Globe, Feb. 23, 1S63. Appendix. 



132 A Political History of Slavery 

States Circuit Court for a writ of habeas corpus. The appli- 
cation was argued by Mr. Pugh, for the prisoner, and by Mr. 
Perry and the District Attorney, in behalf of General Burnside. 
After due consideration the application was denied by the 
court in an opinion that attracted wide attention. He de- 
clared that the power of the President as Commander-in-Chief 
undoubtedly includes the right to arrest persons who by their 
mischievous acts of disloyalty impede the military operations 
of the government. "Men should know and lay the truth to 
heart, that there is a course of conduct not involving overt 
treason, and not therefore subject to punishment as such, 
which, nevertheless implies moral guilt, and a gross ofTence 
against the country." The reputation of Mr. Leavitt as an 
upright and conservative judge gave weight to his opinion at 
the time, but subsequently the Supreme Court of the United 
States dissented from some of its conclusions in the case of 
the Indiana conspirators. 

The President modified the sentence of the military com- 
mission, by directing that instead of being imprisoned, Mr. 
Vallandigham should be sent within the rebel lines, and should 
not return to the United States until after the close of the 
war. This sentence suited the popular humor. Many who 
thought the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham impolitic, and who 
believed it better to run the risk of insurrection even than to 
abridge the freedom of speech, yet conceded that the Presi- 
dent had met the difficulty happily and wisely. 

The pith of the whole matter was not the arrest of Mr. 
Vallandigham and his trial by a military court, but the en- 
dorsement of him by his party which transferred to the party 
the odium of his violent course. The punishment of Mr. 
Vallandigham was treated as a case of martyrdom. The 
action of the government was denounced in public meetings 
at tyrannical and highly dangerous to the liberties of the citi- 
zen. This proceeding, said Governor Seymour in a letter to a 
public meeting held in Albany, May i6th, if "sanctioned by the 
people, is not merely a step toward revolution, it is revolu- 
tion; it will not only lead to military despotism, it establishes 



Lincoln and Vallandigham 133 

military despotism. . . . If it is upheld our liberties are 
overthrown." And forgetting his duties as chief magistrate 
of the most influential State in the Union in sustaining the 
government in the war, he adopted the obstructive method of 
the exile, saying that "the action of the administration will 
determine, in the minds of more than one-half of the people 
of the loyal States, whether this war is waged to put down 
the rebellion in the South or to destroy free institutions at the 
North." 

The adoption by the Albany meeting of resolutions censur- 
ing the government gave Mr. Lincoln the opportunity to bring 
before the people the vital question thus involved in a letter 
reviewing the resolutions which were officially communicated 
to him. Mr. Vallandigham "was not arrested because he was 
damaging the political prospects of the administration, or the 
personal interests of the commanding general, but because he 
was damaging the army, upon the existence and vigor of which 
the life of the nation depends." And then he enforced the 
question of moral responsibility by an illustration which would 
seize upon the imagination of a father or a mother: 

Long experience has shown that armies cannot be maintained un- 
less desertions shall be punished by the severe penalty of death.' 
The case requires, and the law and the Constitution sanction, this 
punishment. Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts 
while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to 
desert? I think that in such a case to silence the agitator and save 
the boy is not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy. 

Mr. Lincoln was even more happy in his reply to a commit- 
tee of Ohioans who visited Washington, and urged the imme- 
diate recall and restoration of Mr. Vallandigham. When the 
Democratic State convention met at Columbus on the nth of 

' During the progress of a battle in Virginia " Stonewall " Jackson observed his 
men falling behind and deserting. He arrested thirty-seven of them, marched 
them in front of his troops and caused them to be shot to death. There viras no 
trial, only the bloody execution at the will of a great soldier. See remarks of 
Senator Wright, Cong. Globe, Dec, 1S62. 



134 A Political History of Slavery 

June for the nomination of State oflficers, the warmth of party 
feeling compelled the nomination of Mr. Vallandigham for 
Governor, despite the efforts of conservative Democrats to 
prevent such a tactical blunder. These brought forward the 
name of General McClellan, who was still a citizen of Ohio, 
but that gentleman declined the honor. The exile was nomi- 
nated amidst the wildest scenes of excitement, and his counsel, 
George E. Pugh, was prevailed on to accept the second place 
on the ticket, and charged with the onerous responsibility of 
making the canvass and justifying the candidate for Governor 
before the people. The committee appointed by the conven- 
tion to wait on Mr. Lincoln consisted of Mr. Birchard, George 
H. Pendleton, David A. Houk and sixteen other well-known 
party leaders. They addressed the President at length, urging 
constitutional arguments against arbitrary arrests in States not 
in rebellion and against the suspension in time of war of the 
freedom of speech and of the press, as in that event "the es- 
sential element of popular government to effect a change of 
policy in the constitutional mode is at an end." As Mr. Lin- 
coln had considered at length the constitutional objections to 
the war policy of the government in his review of the Albany 
resolutions, he did not dwell on them in his reply to the com- 
munication of the Ohio committee. 

He observed the avoidance in the committee's letter of any 
recognition of the army as a constitutional means of saving 
the Union against rebellion and adroitly brought them to the 
record. He expressed his willingness to release Mr. Vallan- 
digham upon terms not embracing any pledge from him or 
from others as to what he would or would not do. These 
conditions were that the committee or a majority of the com- 
mittee should endorse their names upon his letter and return 
it thus endorsed to him, 

with the understanding that those signing are thereby committed to 
the following propositions, and nothing else: i. That there is now a 
rebellion in the United States, the object and tendency of which is 
to destroy the national Union; and that, in your opinion, an army 



I 



John Brough for Governor 135 

and na.vj are constitutional means for suppressing that rebellion. 
2. That no one of you will do anything which, in his own judgment, 
will tend to hinder the increase or favor the decrease, or lessen the 
efficiency of the army and navy while engaged in the effort to sup- 
press the rebellion; and, 3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do all 
he can to have the officers, soldiers and seamen of the army and navy, 
while engaged in the effort to suppress the rebellion, paid, fed, clad 
andotherwise well provided and supported. And with the further un- 
derstanding that upon receiving the letter and names thus endorsed, 
I will cause them to be published, which publication shall be, within 
itself, a revocation of the order in relation to Mr. Vallandigham. 

The committee was in a dilemma. To subscribe to these 
propositions would secure their friend's release, but the act 
would give countenance to the war and justify the arrest of 
Vallandigham. They made a disingenuous reply and returned 
home, baffled and shorn of prestige. 

The day before the Democratic convention met there was 
a great gathering of the people of southeastern Ohio at Mar- 
ietta to hear John Brough on the issues of the day. Mr. 
Brough's fame as a Democratic stump speaker was one of 
the traditions cherished by the people. Old Democrats, re- 
calling the conflicts between their own and the Whig party 
with a feeling of pride, would say to one commending the 
oratorical powers of some new favorite, "But you should have 
heard John Brough." For fifteen years there had been no 
opportunity to hear the favorite of other days. When the 
Democratic party deserted its principles of 1848, Mr. Brough 
refused to have any further part in party management and at 
once entered the new field of enterprise, — railroad construction 
and management, — which proved so inviting to men of energy 
and superior administrative ability. As the head of the "Bee 
Line " Mr. Brough was recognized as one of the most con- 
spicuous, as he was certainly one of the most successful, rail- 
road managers of the country. Now when the hour was 
darkest, when good men were despairing, Mr. Brough appeared 
upon a public platform in his native place to encourage the 
government and to stimulate the people to greater effort. 



136 A Political History of Slavery 

The meeting was in a grove of grand trees, through which 
Brough had roamed when a boy. The speech was a plain and 
statesmanlike discussion of the questions which secession and 
war had given rise to, addressed to the reason of his auditors. 
It met public expectation. It was evident that the orator 
had lost none of the fire and force, the ready wit and practical 
wisdom for which he was famed. The publication of the 
speech led to a spontaneous movement throughout the State 
to secure his nomination as the candidate of the Union party 
for Governor. This was accomplished at Columbus on the 
17th of June. Colonel Charles Anderson, whose escape from 
Texas was one of the romantic incidents of the opening of the 
war, was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor. The patriotic 
war Democrats and Republicans in convention assembled con- 
secrated themselves anew to the work of saving the country. 
Their purpose was expressed in the following resolution re- 
ported by Senator Wade : 

Resolved, That in the present exigencies of the Republic, we lay 
aside personal preferences and prejudices, and henceforth till the 
war is ended, will draw no party line but the great line between 
those who sustain the government and those who oppose it, between 
those who rejoice in the triumph of our armies and those who re- 
joice in the triumph of the enemy. 

The most remarkable canvass known in the political his- 
tory of this country followed. On its final result was 
staked the fate of the nation. It was of greater importance 
than a military campaign. The government was to be sus- 
tained or condemned upon the issues raised by the habeas 
corpus law, by the conscription law, by the arrest of Vallan- 
digham, b)^ the declaration of Governor Seymour and the 
Democratic State convention of Ohio, that, if the acts of the 
government should be approved, the freedom of speech and 
the liberties of the citizen would be overthrown, and a military 
despotism established in their place. Henceforth until the 
close of the war John Brough was a grand figure. 

As this fateful campaign was about to open, while Rosecrans 



John Brough for Governor 137 

was menacing Bragg at Tullahoma, and Burnside was prepar- 
ing to enter east Tennessee, John Morgan, the famous chief 
of rebel cavalry, was sent by General Bragg on a raid through 
Kentucky to disturb the communications of the Union gen- 
erals, which were guarded by General Judah. It was hoped 
this would prevent the sending of reinforcements to Rosecrans. 
After five days spent in Kentucky, Morgan crossed into In- 
diana on the 8th of July with a force of two thousand men, 
and for ten days kept that State and Ohio in an uproar. He 
was finally captured on the upper Ohio after a fight at Buffing- 
ton Island, and was imprisoned in the penitentiary at Colum- 
bus. This raid cost the State of Ohio nearly nine hundred 
thousand dollars. The experience was not without its com- 
pensation in the influence it had in the political campaign. 

"Leave to us free assemblages, free discussion, and a free 
ballot," said the leaders of the peace Democracy, "and we are 
ready to try the questions at issue and will abide by the re- 
sult." In the political canvass made in all of the States hold- 
ing elections the speakers had not only freedom of speech but 
license of speech. The meetings everywhere in Ohio were 
largely attended, especially the Democratic meetings, and 
there were unusual manifestations of zeal and enthusiasm in 
support of Mr. Vallandigham's cause. While the Union 
meetings were large, they impressed one seriously with a sense 
of personal responsibility. Mr. Brough spoke in nearly every 
county in the State with a power seldom equalled and perhaps 
never surpassed in a campaign of such length. 

The brilliant triumph revealed by the October ballots electri- 
fied the whole country. The majority for John Brough was 
over one hundred and one thousand — the largest ever received 
by any candidate for the suffrages of the people.' "Count 
every ballot as a bullet fairly aimed at the heart of the rebel- 
lion," said Secretary Chase, who had returned home to vote, 

' There have been larger majorities since 1863, with larger aggregate votes, in 
New York and Ohio. The Legislature had made provision for taking the votes 
of Ohio soldiers in the field. The majority of the soldier vote for Brough was 
39,179; home vote, 61,920. Total majority, 101,099. 



13S A Political Histon- of Slaven^ 

on election day. The sequel confirmed the truth of it. The 
soldiers at the front gave Brough a majority a few votes less 
than forty thousand, which confirmed their address to the 
people of Ohio. 

My brigade [Rutherford B. Hayes set down in his diary on the 
13th of October] gave a unanimous vote for Brough, I went to bed 
like a Christian at 9 p.m. McKinley routed me at eleven with the 
first news. All good and conclusive. State 50,000 on the home 
vote. A \-ictor)- equal to a triumph of arms in an important battle. 
It shows persistent determination — willingness to pay taxes, to wait, 
to be patient. 

In Pennsylvania Governor Curtin was re-elected in October by 
a majority exceeding fifteen thousand, in spite of the personal 
participation of General McClellan in the canvass against him. 
This vote had a special significance, because his opponent was 
Judge George W. Woodward, who had given a decision against 
the constitutionality of the conscription law. Thus the great 
Keystone State remained true to the administration. The im- 
pulse of these October elections was communicated to New 
York, which had been disgraced by the anti-draft riots of July, 
and held in an attitude of antagonism to the government by 
Governor Seymour. The election of Chauncey M. Depew to 
the office of Secretary of State by thirty thousand majority 
was a popular rebuke merited by the Governor. In Massa- 
chusetts Governor Andrew was re-elected by over forty-one 
thousand majority. In Kentucky the issue had been fairly 
met, and the verdict which carried Mr. Bramlette into the 
Governor's office was backed by the substantial majority of 
nearly fifty-one thousand. Thus even.- State except New 
Jersey voted to sustain the government. The verdict was 
that the rebellion must be suppressed— that the government 
was expected to employ for the accomplishment of this result 
all the means at its command not incompatible with the laws 
of war and the usages of civilized nations. If the leaders of 
the peace Democracy had been honest in their professions 
they would have acquiesced in this overwhelming expression 



Foreign Complications 139 

of public opinion. A goodly number who had united with 
them, on their refusing to keep their promise to abide by the 
decision of the ballot-box, separated from them. 

The convention formed in 1861 by the British, French and 
Spanish governments, to force Mexico to give efficient pro- 
tection to foreigners and to pay arrears due to fund-holders, 
was dissolved in April, 1862, by the action of Great Britain 
and Spain in declaring for peace. The imperial intriguer of 
France, who dreamed of a universal fusion of the Latin races 
and had already determined to establish a monarchy upon the 
ruins of the Mexican republic, declared vrar against Juarez 
ostensibly to enforce just claims. The French army under 
General Bazaine, accompanied by many of the clergy, occupied 
the city of Mexico on the 5th of June, 1863. Six weeks later, 
a manifesto was issued, dated. "Palace of the Regency of the 
Empire of Mexico," which announced that the crown of 
Mexico was offered to "His Imperial and Royal Highness the 
Prince Ferdinand Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, for him- 
self and his descendants." This new cloud on the American 
horizon gave rise to much anxiety in the United States, as it 
bore a relation to the scheme of Napoleon to inter\'ene in our 
affairs. While the government protested against these pro- 
ceedings its true policy pending the suppression of the re- 
bellion was that of strict neutrality. This contravened the 
traditional principles of the government as defined by the 
Monroe Doctrine, but it was a necessity of the situation — a 
temporary' expedient and not a formal renunciation of the 
doctrine which pledged the United States to hold the whole 
continent open to republican institutions. "This government 
believes," said Secretan,- Seward, "that foreign resistance, or 
attempts to control American civilization, must and will fail 
before the ceaseless and ever-increasing activity of material, 
moral and political forces, which peculiarly belong to the 
American continent." And he warned the Emperor of 
France, that should he adopt a policy in Mexico adverse to 
the American opinion and sentiments, "that policy would 
probably scatter seeds which would be fruitful of jealousies 



I40 A Political History of Slavery 

which might ultimately ripen into collision between France 
and the United States and other American republics." ' 

The security which the agents of the confederate govern- 
ment found in British ports continued to imperil the commerce 
of the United States and to threaten the blockade of the 
Southern ports. The Alabama was pursuing its career of de- 
struction unchecked, and was likely to be followed by other 
more powerful iron-clad vessels unless the British government 
could be brought to a realization of its responsibility. Mr. 
Adams had collected evidence of the purpose and destination 
of two formidable vessels under construction, and he had asked 
the British government to prevent their departure. This was 
refused. Thereupon Mr. Adams, on the 5th of September, 
1863, wrote to Lord Russell, expressing regret at such a de- 
cision, which he said he could regard not otherwise than as 
giving to the agents of the insurgents permission to prepare 
in Great Britain the means for entering and devastating any of 
the seaports of the United States. This, he declared, was war. 

No matter what may be the theory adopted of neutrality in a 
struggle, when this process is carried on in the manner indicated, 
from a territory and with the aid of the subjects of a third party, 
that third party to all intents and purposes ceases to be neutral. 
Neither is it necessary to show that any government which suffers it 
to be done, fails in enforcing the essential conditions of international 
amity towards the country against whom the hostility is directed. In 
my belief it is impossible that any nation, retaining a proper degree 
of self-respect, could tamely submit to a continuance of relations so 
utterly deficient in reciprocity. I have no idea that Great Britain 
would do so for a moment.^ 

Three days later Lord Russell informed Mr. Adams that in- 
structions had been issued which would prevent the departure 
of the two iron-clad vessels from Liverpool. This diplomatic 
victory of vast importance strengthened the confidence felt 
on account of the political and military successes won this year 
that the rebellion would soon be overcome. 

' Diplomatic Correspondence, Sept. 26, 1863. ^ /bid. 



The Thirty-eighth Congress 141 

The Thirty-eighth Congress met on Monday, December 7th. 
The House was promptly organized by the election of Schuy- 
ler Colfax of Indiana as Speaker. He was a genial and tact- 
ful man, with a thorough acquaintance with the rules of the 
House, and he made a popular and attentive Speaker. The 
Union majority continued large and strong in support of the 
administration. New members of marked ability were added. 
In place of Mr. Vallandigham, General Robert C. Schenck 
appeared to represent the Dayton district. He had had large 
legislative experience and was a debater of great force, and he 
now returned to the scene of his early triumphs as a repre- 
sentative of the volunteer soldiers. Another and much 
younger representative of this class — James A. Garfield — 
entered upon a public career in which he was destined to win 
distinction as a debater of rare power and as a statesman, 
studious and liberal-minded. Other names on the roll of this 
House that attract one's attention are those of James G. 
Blaine, Samuel J. Randall, George S. Boutwell, John A. 
Kasson, William B. Allison and William R. Morrison, as 
names intimately related to the legislation of the closing year 
of the war and the reconstruction and financial measures re- 
sulting from the war. 

The President's message, which was made public on the 
9th, was received with great satisfaction. Mr. Lincoln alluded 
to the improved foreign relations, but he made no reference 
to the presence in American waters for several months of a 
Russian fleet which had aroused the jealousy of other Euro- 
pean Powers, whose unfriendliness caused us great disquietude. 
This fleet came when intervention seemed most imminent, and' 
was an unofificial notice to the rest of the world that Russia 
was the friend of the American Republic to the extent, if the 
exigencies demanded it, of giving actual aid. Social courtesies 
were the only return we could make at this time for such an 
extraordinary manifestation of friendliness. 

The most interesting feature of the message was the refer- 
ence to a proclamation of amnesty to those willing to resume 
their allegiance to the government — the pardon and restoration 



142 A Political History of Slavery 

to citizenship requiring an acceptance of, and acquiescence in, 
the emancipation proclamation ; and a mode for the re-estab- 
lishment of State governments, which made it legal for "a 
number of persons not less than one-tenth in number of the 
votes cast at the presidential election of i860, each having 
taken the oath of fealty prescribed, and being a qualified voter 
under the State law, to re-establish a State government which 
should be recognized as the true government of the State." 
This plan looked to a perfect restoration of State rights in the 
Union, by means of the loyal popular suffrage within the 
States, thus recognizing their constitutions as obligatory in 
everything except the relations of master and slave. And the 
President promised to support any provisions which might be 
adopted by such State government "in relation to the freed 
people of such State which shall recognize and declare their 
permanent freedom, provide for their education and which 
may yet be consistent as a temporary arrangement with their 
present condition as a laboring, landless and homeless class." 

The President referred with satisfaction to the growth of 
sentiment in the border States and in Tennessee and Arkansas 
in favor of emancipation. "Of those States not included in 
the emancipation proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, 
neither of which three years ago would tolerate any restraint 
upon the extension of slavery into new territories, only now 
dispute as to the best mode of removing it within their own 
limits." He added: "No servile insurrection or tendency 
to cruelty has marked the measures of emancipation and the 
arming of the blacks." 

The Richmond Examiner of the 31st of December summed 
up the results of 1863 for the insurgent States: 

To-day closes the gloomiest year of our struggle. No sanguine 
hope of intervention buoys up the spirit of the confederate public, 
as at the end of 1861. No brilliant victory like that of Fredericks- 
burg, encourages us to look forward to a speedy and successful ter- 
mination of the war, as in the last weeks of 1862. . , . The interior 
has been fearfully narrowed by the federal march through Tennes- 



The Thirty-eighth Congress 143 

see. The Confederacy has been cut in twain along the line of the 
Mississippi, and our enemies are steadily pushing forward their plans 
for bisecting the eastern moiety. . . . Meanwhile the financial 
chaos is becoming wilder and wilder. Hoarders keep a more reso- 
lute grasp than ever on the necessaries of life. Non-producers who 
are at the same time non-speculators, are suffering more and more. 
What was once competence has become poverty, poverty has be- 
come penury, penury is lapsing into pauperism. 

But despite these manifold discouragments ; despite evidences 
of a desire on the part of the people of North Carolina and 
Arkansas for peace, despite constantly diminishing resources, 
the confederate government was preparing to make a desperate 
resistance — a resistance truly heroic for courage and endurance, 
but alas ! involving wicked sacrifice of life in a cause hopeless 
after Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Chattanooga. 




CHAPTER VII 

THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT — THE BEGINNINGS OF 
RECONSTRUCTION 

THE political events and the military movements of 1864, 
as in 1863, were parts of the same campaign for the 
suppression of the rebellion and the restoration of the 
Union — were commingled in the drama then enacting. No 
one that had any share in the great events of 1864 can efface 
from the mind the recollection of them. The memory is con- 
stantly employed in unrolling a panorama exhibiting scenes 
which revive emotions that thrilled the heart in a way that 
makes everything in life since that time seem tame. There 
was no falling off of energy, no weakening of determination, 
amongst the loyal people, in the support of the government. 
They looked only to the restoration of national authority 
throughout the insurgent States. There were periods of de- 
pression, it is true; there were impatient expressions of dis- 
satisfaction with the administration even by its best friends, 
but no whit of yielding of high purpose to preserve the Union, 
one and indivisible. 

The preparations for what was believed to be the final 
struggle were carried on by both sides during the winter, 
spring and summer with resolution and thoroughness. In the 
South the able-bodied men between the ages of seventeen and 
fifty were liable to service with limited exceptions.' A dis- 

' All men who had placed substitutes in service were called for and exemptions 
were curtailed. In October, 1864, an order swept away the system of details for 
mechanical, manufacturing and other pursuits. 

144 



Preparing for Final Struggle 145 

tinction made in the beginning of the war led to dissensions 
later. If a man owned twenty negroes, he was excused from 
military duty. If a man had ten starving children he was not. 
The man who owned the negoes could stay at home with his 
wealth; the man with the starving children must leave them 
and go to the battle-field.' The most singular of the phe- 
nomena attending the slaveholders' rebellion, the most dif^cult 
to explain, is the support given to it by the lower and middle 
classes in the South. Even as late as the winter of 1864, 
when the confederate boundaries were being gradually con- 
tracted, when General Longstreet and other intelligent of^cers 
saw in Gettysburg the beginning of the decline of the power 
of the Southern aristocracy, an address issued by the con- 
federate Congress declared that all that was intended by 
secession was to break up the eld Union and form an inde- 
pendent confederacy, founded on '' the proper relations between 
capital and labor.'' This was an avowal of the doctrine that 
capital should own labor, without the distinction made by the 
Southern leaders in earlier times that it applied only to the 
African race. 

This open declaration did not lessen the zeal with which 
the peace leaders in the North labored to stop the war. They 
would restore "the Union as it was and the Constitution as 
it is," hac lege : that the slave power should be predominant 
for all time. The history of the world was a sealed book to 
them ; the sentiments of Christian nations made no impression 

' Cf. Speech of Hon. Jere Clemens at Huntsville, Ala., March 13, 1864. Cor. 
Chicago Tribune, 14th. 

" Instead of making constant new drafts upon the agricultural and mechanical 
labor of the country for recruits for the army, to swell our numbers beyond our 
present muster rolls, which must prove our ruin if our provisions fail, I respect- 
fully submit that it would be wiser to put the troops into the army and leave men 
enough at home to support them. In other words, compel the thousands of young 
officers in gold lace and brass buttons, who are constantly seen crowding our rail- 
roads and hotels, many of whom can seldom be found at their posts, and the 
thousands of straggling soldiers who are absent without leave, or by the favoritism 
of officers, whose names are on the pay rolls, and who are not producers at home, 
to remain at their present places in the army." — Message of Gov, Brown to the 
Georgia Legislature. Atlanta Intelligencer, March 13, 1864. 

VOL. II.— 10. 



146 A Political Histor^^ of Slavery 

upon them ; the experience of thirty years of political strife 
taught them no wisdom. They were now the hope of the 
Southern secessionists. Their efforts to paralyze the mili- 
tary arm of the government bore a close and treasonable 
relation to the resistance of the Confederacy, as will be dis- 
closed more fully.' Meanwhile Alexander Long, representa- 
tive of the Second District of Ohio, boldly championed the 
cause of the Confederacy in a speech of which the Speaker 
took notice by offering a resolution for his expulsion — an 
unusual proceeding." The language cited was this: 

I now believe that there are but two alternatives, and they are 
either an acknowledgment of the independence of the South as an 
independent nation, or their complete subjugation and extermina- 
tion as a people; and of these alternatives I prefer the former. 

A clause in the oath taken by Mr. Long when he was 
admitted to his seat was in these words: "I have voluntarily 
given no aid, countenance, counsel or encouragement to 
persons engaged in armed hostility to the United States," 
which was tantamount to a declaration that such conduct 
was regarded as inconsistent with membership in the Con- 
gress of the United States. The resolution declared that 
Mr. Long by his speech in favor of recognizing the inde- 
pendence of the Confederacy had given " aid, countenance 
and encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility 
to the United States." Mr. Garfield opened the debate, 
which occupied the attention of the House for several days, 
with impromptu remarks which gave promise of the great 
prominence he afterward attained as leader of the House. 

' As the time approached for the election of a President, and just after the 
Democratic party of the North in national convention had declared the war a 
failure, Howell Cobb suggested to the confederate Secretary of War that all 
Northern soldiers in prison opposed to Mr. Lincoln should be sent home on 
parole. His reasons were : " i. We get clear of feeding and guarding that many 
prisoners. 2. We give that many votes and influence against Lincoln's election. 
3. We show the Yankee people that Lincoln is refusing to exchange for political 
purposes." — Treatment of Prisoners — Report. 

s Cong. Globe, April 8, 1864, p. 1499, et seq. 



Preparing for Final Struggle 147 

Coming so recently from the battle-field of Chickamauga, his 
eloquence carried with it the indignant rebuke of the soldiers 
who had offered their lives as a patriotic sacrifice for their 
country. "I believe," said he, "the utterance of to-day is 
the uplifted banner of revolt. I ask you to mark the signal 
that blazes here, and see if there will not soon appear the 
answering signals of traitors all over the land." 

The following day Benjamin G. Harris of Maryland, in a 
violent speech against the resolution, sought distinction by 
using the following words : 

The South ask you to leave them in peace, but now you say you 
will bring them into subjection. That is not done yet, and God 
Almighty grant it never may be ! 

Mr. Washburne offered a resolution for the expulsion of 
Mr. Harris. The excitement was intense in the House. 
Under the operation of the previous question the resolution 
was brought to an immediate vote, but failed to receive a vote 
of two-thirds requisite for the expulsion of a member. A 
resolution of censure, declaring Mr. Harris to be an unworthy 
member of the House, was adopted by a vote of ninety-three 
yeas to eighteen nays. Among those voting in the negative 
were Fernando Wood, Samuel J. Randall and George H. 
Pendleton. The mover of the resolution relating to Mr. 
Long, after further debate, accepted as a substitute two reso- 
lutions introduced by Mr. Broomall of Pennsylvania, which, 
together with the preamble, were adopted. The first declared 
Mr. Long an unworthy member of the House. The second 
directed the Speaker to read the first resolution to Mr. Long 
during the session of the House. 

It was confidently believed in the army and in the States 
bordering on the Ohio River that there was an understanding 
between the confederate government and the Knights of the 
Golden Circle and the peace leaders cooperating with that 
treasonable organization ; that they had a plan for checking 
the movements of the armed forces of the Union, and liberat- 
ing the rebel prisoners. The evidence was strong; it became 



148 A Political History of Slavery 

alarming as the campaign progressed. Thus on Vallandig- 
ham's return to Ohio, Governor Bramlette of Kentucky wrote 
to Governor Morton, June 23d : 

The appearance of Vallandigham in Ohio simultaneously with 
Morgan's raid in Kentucky fully confirms the matters made known 
to me through General Lindsey, by you. The defeat of Morgan has 
frustrated their movements for the present, but vigilance in the 
future must still guard us against these machinations of evil doers.' 

The vigilance of the Governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois 
and Kentucky, and of General Rosecrans, now in command in 
Missouri, was rewarded by the accumulation of a mass of 
testimony (never fully made public) which revealed a wide- 
spread conspiracy to bring about a revolt in the Northwest. 

Confidential agents of Governor Brough and of Governor 
Morton were members of the secret organizations, and made 
reports of their proceedings. They obtained information 
when, where and how arms were received, and watched the 
drilling of the confederates on moonlight nights — for all of 
their proceedings took place when honest people were in bed. 
This information was confirmed by other evidence. 

While these evil influences were spreading, the loyal people 
were active in strengthening the government by raising re- 
cruits for the armies. Liberal bounties were paid. These 
proved more potent than the enrollment act. Few men were 
drafted — the patriotic appeals of the Governors and the co- 
operation of public-spirited citizens proving sufficient to meet 
the call of the President in the winter for five hundred thou- 
sand men. The greater success attending recruiting in the 
West was an inducement for the executives of other States to 
send agents to that field, who offered heavy bounties. This 
led to the passage of a law by the General Assembly of Ohio 
prohibiting the crediting of recruits raised within the State to 
the quota of any other State. 

But the influence of greatest importance at this time was 
the patriotic example of the re-enlistment of the old three- 

' Cincinnati Commeycial, June 29th. 



Grant Made Commander-in-Chief 149 

year regiments. As they were furloughed to return home, the 
whole country was ablaze with enthusiasm. They were every- 
where received with demonstrations of affectionate regard. 
As they proudly displayed the flags they had borne in battle, 
discolored by sunshine and storms, and torn by shot and shell, 
the hearts of the spectators were moved most profoundly. 
They shared in the pride of the men who had faced a brave 
foe, who had endured so much for the most sacred cause a 
citizen can offer his life for. They took these brave spirits to 
their arms. They reverently touched the rent banners. They 
felt for the first time, perhaps, the full meaning of citizenship 
in a free republic. They had an accession of virtue; their 
manhood was firmer, broader. 

A bill introduced by Elihu B. Washburne on the 7th of De- 
cember, 1863, to authorize the appointment of a Lieutenant- 
General for all of the national forces was passed by Congress 
and received the executive approval on the 29th of February. 
The President nominated Ulysses S. Grant to the responsible 
position. On the 20th of March there were two quiet gentle- 
men in conference at the Burnet House in Cincinnati,' upon 
whom at this time the most weighty responsibilities were 
pressing. They had journeyed together from Nashville, and 
here they concluded whatever business they had in hand and 
separated — one, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armies 
of the United States, departing by the night express for 
Washington, to give direction in person to the armies of the 
Potomac and James operating against Richmond ; the other, 
who had been appointed to the command of the military divi- 
sion of the Mississippi, returning five days later to Nashville, 
to organize a large army to move into Georgia, coincidently 
with the advance of the Eastern armies against Richmond. 
For the first time we were to have a comprehensive plan with 
unity of action. This was rendered possible by the unlimited 
confidence Grant and Sherman reposed in each other. 

The failure, in the spring of 1864, of the Red River expe- 
dition under Banks, added to the defeat of a force under 

'Cincinnati Gazette, March 21, 1S64. 



I50 A Political History of Slavery 

General Seymour in Florida in February, and to the capture of 
Fort Pillow and massacre of the garrison, on the 12th of April, 
caused despondency and a feeling of dissatisfaction with the 
administration. 

Of the six hundred men constituting the garrison of Fort 
Pillow, about three hundred and fifty were colored troops. 
This fact will account for the brutality of the men under Gen- 
eral Forrest. Jefferson Davis followed the emancipation 
proclamation by proposing to turn over to the States for trial 
all Union officers captured within their respective limits. The 
authority given to the President to employ negroes in the mili- 
tary service, and the arming of the blacks, led to the announce- 
ment by the confederate government that death should be 
meted out to every captured Union officer in command of 
negro troops, and to the adoption of a policy by rebel officers, 
widely separated, of shooting down in cold blood captured 
blacks. After Forrest's men had done their will upon the 
garrison it was found that thirty-six white men, including two 
wounded officers and twenty-one negroes, remained. These 
were carried off as prisoners.' 

When Plymouth, in North Carolina, was captured, April 
20th, a company of loyal North Carolinians and some negro 
troops were murdered in cold blood after the surrender. 
These butcheries justified the conclusion of the Committee on 
the Conduct of the War, formed after a careful investigation, 
that they were designed to drive from the Union armies the 
negroes and the loyal Southerners. The people shuddered 
with horror at the recital of these bloody deeds. There was a 
demand for retribution, which the President regarded so far as 
to promise in a speech at the opening of the Sanitary Commis- 
sion Fair in Baltimore that it should be met. But the sub- 
ject was not without' its difficulties, and, when maturely con- 
sidered, taking the lives of innocent persons for the wicked 
deeds of a few of rank and authority doubtless seemed to Mr. 
Lincoln and his advisers to lack the element of righteousness. 

1 It was asserted by General Forrest that he had nothing to do personally with 
the massacre and that he stopped the firing as soon as he could. 



I 



Grant Made Commander-in-Chief 151 

At any rate, nothing more was heard of Mr, Lincoln's promise 
made at Baltimore. A few months later General Grant took 
notice of the attitude of the confederate government towards 
negro troops in the blue uniform of the United States, in a 
communication addressed to General Lee, dated October 29th : 

I shall always regret the necessity of retaliating for wrongs done 
our soldiers; but regard it my duty to protect all persons received 
into the army of the United States, regardless of color or nationality. 
When acknowledged soldiers of the government are captured, they 
must be treated as prisoners of war, or such treatment as they re- 
ceive will be inflicted upon an equal number of prisoners held by us. 

In answer to the questions at the conclusion of your letter, I have 
to state that all prisoners of war falling into my hands shall receive 
the kindest treatment possible, consistent with securing them, unless 
I have good authority for believing any number of our men are be- 
ing treated otherwise. Then, painful as it may be to me, I shall 
inflict like treatment on an equal number of prisoners. 

The historian is glad to record that this firm, manly and 
humane letter had a marked influence on the future treatment 
of captured Union soldiers. The blackest chapter in the his- 
tory of the Confederacy, and one which did much to embitter 
feeling in the North, is that relating to the care of prisoners 
captured during the w^ar. Much suffering was due to the 
limited resources of the Confederacy, but lack of resources 
should not excuse the selection of thirty-five acres of ground 
enclosing a swamp at Andersonville for a prison ; nor the 
establishing of a dead line within its bounds, and the crowding 
in its limited space of thirty-five thousand men at one time 
without protection from the heat of the sun or the elements 
and without sanitary provisions. The promotion of General 
Winder, the keeper of this prison, after his inhumanity had 
been condemned in an official report by Colonel Chandler, 
who made a careful inspection of the premises, was one of the 
most shocking episodes of the war. A single extract from this 
terrible indictment will suffice. Colonel Chandler recommend- 
ed the removal of Winder and the appointment in his stead of 



152 A Political History of Slavery 

some one who at least will not advocate deliberately and in cold 
blood the propriety of leaving them [the prisoners] in their present 
condition until their number has been sufficiently reduced by death 
to make the present arrangement suffice for their accommodation; 
who will not consider it a matter of self-laudation and boasting that 
he has never been inside the stockade, a place the horrors of which 
it is difficult to describe and which is a disgrace to civilization. 

The fault for the suffering of prisoners on both sides is at- 
tributed to the national authorities by Alexander H. Stephens, 
"in not agreeing to and carrying out an immediate exchange, 
which Mr. Davis was, at all times, anxious to do, upon the 
most liberal and humane principles. Had Mr. Davis's re- 
peated offers been accepted, no prisoner on either side would 
have been retained in confinement a day." It is not necessary 
to enter upon an examination of the technical objections 
raised to recognizing the belligerent rights claimed by the 
confederate government; and of the tedious correspondence 
carried on while men were perishing in prison, the real motive 
of which was "how not to do it." The palpable fact is, that 
soldiers were left in confinement in many instances nearly two 
years before an exchange was effected. The South lacked a 
sufficiency of medical supplies and of many necessaries; but 
good men might have been selected as keepers. There was 
too little regard for the claims of humanity on both sides. 

Only as the war proceeded, and as the manifold questions 
to which it gave rise came up for consideration, was the extent 
to which all of our relations were complicated with the negro 
fully revealed. Read the proceedings of the Thirty-seventh 
and Thirty-eighth Congresses, covering the most momentous 
legislation in the history of the Republic since the close of the 
first administration of Washington, which preserve the evi- 
dence of the noble sentiments of patriotism animating the 
statesmen of the day ; read the state papers of the executive, 
the correspondence of the departments and of the military 
commanders, and all contain evidence that only by destroying 
the institution of slavery, by repealing all legislation relating 



The Thirteenth Amendment 153 

to it, and requiring all reconstructed States to make their 
governments conform to the new order, could we become in 
truth one people and fulfil the high destiny which was the 
promise of 1776. The emancipation proclamation was issued 
by the Commander-in-Chief. It was, therefore, the exercise 
of military power, and was limited in its application. To in- 
sure the legal abolition of slavery throughout the land an 
amendment to the Constitution was necessary. When the 
Thirty-eighth Congress first assembled, there was a feeling 
that the public mind was prepared to sustain a measure pro- 
viding for a change in the fundamental law. Accordingly, in 
the House in December, Mr. Ashley of Ohio and Mr. Wilson 
of Iowa severally introduced a joint resolution for the sub- 
mission to the States of an amendment to the Constitution 
prohibiting slavery.' Similar resolutions were laid before the 
Senate by Mr. Henderson of Missouri and Mr. Sumner of 
Massachusetts, which were referred to the Committee on the 
Judiciary. February loth Mr. Trumbull, chairman of the 
committee, reported back the proposition of Mr. Henderson 
amended so as to read as follows: 

Art. 13, Sec. i. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except 
as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly 
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject 
to their jurisdiction. 

The debate, which is of great historical interest, was opened 
by Mr. Trumbull on the 28th of March. After considering 
the views of the opposition in regard to the legal effect of the 
proclamation of emancipation and the importance of ending 
all controversy on this subject through the legal form pre- 
scribed by the Constitution, he said : 

I think, then, it is reasonable to suppose, that if this proposed 
amendment passes Congress, it will within a year receive the ratifi- 
cation of the requisite number of States to make it a part of the 

' The first resolution relating to the subject was introduced by Mr. Arnold of 
Illinois, but it was merely declaratory. 



154 A Political History of Slavery 

Constitution. That accomplished, and we are forever freed of this 
troublesome question. We accomplish, then, what the statesmen of 
this country have been struggling to accomplish for years. We take 
this question entirely away from the politics of the country. We re- 
lieve Congress of sectional strife, and what is better than all, we 
restore to a whole race that freedom which is theirs by the gift of 
God, but which we for generations have wickedly denied them. 

Mr. Wilson followed in a speech devoted largely to the 
moral aspects of the measure. 

The incorporation of this amendment into the organic law of the 
nation [said he] will make impossible forevermore the reappearing 
of the discarded slave system, and the returning of the despotism of 
the slave master's domination. . . . Then the nation, "regen- 
erated and disenthralled by the genius of universal emancipation," 
will run the career of development, power, and glory, quickened, 
animated and guided by the spirit of the Christian democracy, that 
"pulls not the highest down, but lifts the lowest up." 

Mr. Sumner, Mr. Hale and Mr. Harlan also supported the 
amendment in eloquent speeches reflecting their well-knov^rn 
anti-slavery sentiments. But the speeches in favor of the 
measure vv^hich excited the deepest interest were those of Mr, 
Henderson of Missouri and Reverdy Johnson of Maryland. 
These speeches of these men, distinguished for ability and 
high character, representing slave States, mark the progress 
of the moral and political revolution born of secession. What 
was dark for generations in the South they illumined. 

If there be justice in God's providence [said Mr. Johnson], if we 
are at liberty to suppose that He will not abandon man and his 
rights to their own fate, and suffer their destiny to be worked out by 
their own means and with their own lights, I never doubted that the 
day must come when human slavery would be exterminated by a 
convulsive effort on the part of the bondmen, unless that other and 
better reason and influence which might bring it about should be 
successful, — the mild though powerful influence of that higher and 
elevated morality which the Christian religion teaches. 



The Thirteenth Amendment 155 

Mr. Hendricks of Indiana, who secured a seat in the Senate 
through the political reaction of 1862, said that he would not 
vote for the resolution because the time was not auspicious. 
To make it a part of the Constitution would require the ap- 
proval of three-fourths of thirty-five States. The insurgent 
States were not in position to consider the question. Garrett 
Davis, like Mr. Hendricks, indulged in denunciation of the 
administration rather than in arguments against the resolution. 

If the dominant party can continue their power and rule [he pas- 
sionately exclaimed], either by the will or acquiescence of the peo- 
ple, or the exercise of the formidable powers which it has usurped, 
I am not able to see any termination of the present and still growing 
ills, short of the ordeal of general and bloody anarchy. 

The joint resolution was adopted on the 8th of April by a 
vote of thirty-eight to six. The negative votes were cast by 
the Senators of Delaware and Kentucky, Mr. McDougall of 
California and Mr. Hendricks of Indiana. The very large 
vote in the Senate was expected to have a favorable influence 
on the House. The resolution was taken up in that body on 
the 31st of May and considered in committee of the whole 
until the 15th of June, when it was brought to a vote, when, 
lacking the requisite two-thirds, a motion was made by Mr. 
Ashley (who had voted in the negative for that purpose) to re- 
consider the vote, and the resolution was laid on the table 
until the next session. 

The debate in the House was participated in by an un- 
usually large number of the members. Mr. Morris of New 
York led off in support of the proposed amendment, and was 
followed by Fernando Wood of the same State in opposition, 
who predicted that the most direful results would ensue upon 
the completion of the policy of abolition, which involved the 
extermination of Southern white men and the forfeiture of their 
property. 

Negroes and military colonists will take the place of the race thus 
blotted out of existence. Is this intended as the last scene of the 



156 A Political History of Slavery 

bloody drama of carnage and civil war now being prosecuted? The 
world looks on with horror, and it will leave to future ages a fearful 
warning to avoid similar acts of perfidious atrocity. 

Only the infatuated and misguided supporters of the Southern 
system could discover anything atrocious in the act of setting 
men free. Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Randall argued earnestly 
against the policy of the proposed legislation as the beginning 
of changes that might prove dangerous. "Neither three- 
fourths of the States nor all of the States save one," said Mr. 
Pendleton, "can abolish slavery in that dissenting State, be- 
cause it lies within the domain reserved entirely to each State 
for itself, and upon it the other States cannot enter." 

In the follou^ing January, Mr. Ashley, on moving to recon- 
sider the vote of the previous session, referred to the argument 
of Mr. Pendleton. In the fifth article of the Constitution pro- 
viding for amendments, he found the power for the Congress 
to act. 

It is past comprehension how any man [said he], with the Consti- 
tution before him, and the history of the convention which formed 
the Constitution within his reach, together with the repeated de- 
cisions of the Supreme Court against the assumption of the State- 
rights pretensions, can be found at this late day defending the 
state-sovereignty dogmas, and claiming that the national Constitu- 
tion cannot be so amended as to prohibit slavery, even though all 
the States of the Union, save one, gave it their approval. 

"I lay down this proposition," said Mr. Higby of California, 
"that when the States ratified the Constitution they yielded 
and subscribed to all the provisions of that instrument, among 
which provisions is the method by which the Constitution 
could be amended." Amplifying this argument, Mr. Morris 
said : 

The majority agreed never to insert any new provision into the 
organic act unless two-thirds of the Congress should deem it neces- 
sary, and then three-fourths of the States should approve of it be- 
fore it should be valid. Thus guarded the minority undertook and 



The Thirteenth Amendment 157 

provided that they would yield obedience to all and any changes 
thus inaugurated and approved; provided always, they did not 
conflict with the letter or spirit of the organic act. 

Mr. Pendleton resumed his argument as to the power of 
Congress and a majority of the States to amend the Constitu- 
tion. In a speech graceful, dignified and logical, which ex- 
torted praise from those who differed with him, he enforced 
the Calhoun theory of the paramount rights of the States as 
against the present purpose of the majority. He held that 
the right of amendment granted by the Constitution is limited 
in two ways, first by the letter of the Constitution itself, 
and next by the spirit and intent and scope of that instrument, 
and by the idea which underlies it all as a foundation. He 
was not explicit in defining his first proposition, and placed 
greater reliance on his second, as did his great exemplar when 
pleading for the maintenance of equality of the sections in the 
Senate. Congress cannot, under the power of amendment, 
contravene the letter and spirit of the Constitution ; cannot 
destroy the liberties of the States; cannot decide the status 
of the citizens of the States; cannot, against the spirit of the 
fundamental law, impose an amendment upon dissenting 
States by force ; the right to resist by force belongs to such 
dissenting States. 

Mr. Boutwell, while agreeing with Mr. Pendleton that the 
power to amend the Constitution was not an unlimited power, 
held that the limitation is to be found in the preamble, to 
which an amendment, to have both moral and legal force, 
must conform. 

An amendment which tends to "a more perfect union, to establish 
justice, to insure domestic tranquillity, to provide for the common 
defense, to promote the general welfare, and to secure the blessings 
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity," is an amendment which, 
when made according to the form prescribed in the Constitution, is 
both morally and legally binding upon the people of the country. 

The proposed Thirteenth Amendment he believed to be in 



158 A Political History of Slavery 

conformity with those objects, while an amendment to establish 
slavery would be contrary to them. 

The support which Mr. Pendleton gave to the constitutional 
amendment reported by Mr. Corwin from the Committee of 
Thirty-three in 1861, which deprived Congress of the power 
to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic in- 
stitutions thereof, was inconsistent with his present position. 
If the Congress then had the power to amend the Constitution 
so as to prohibit interference with slavery, inquired Mr. Farns- 
worth, why could they not in 1864 adopt an amendment pro- 
hibiting slavery? But Mr. Pendleton belonged to the school 
of the past, a school destroyed by the war. 

If the Northern Democrats of the Calhoun faith failed to 
read a lesson in the revolution inaugurated by the Southern 
aristocracy, there were Southern men in the House as well as 
in the Senate who welcomed the opportunity to make freedom 
national. Mr. Crcswell of Maryland, Mr. Rollins of Missouri, 
Mr. Yeaman and Green Clay Smith of Kentucky, as well as 
others, repudiated the extreme State-rights dogma which had 
led the South into rebellion — a dogma which now found its 
chief advocate in the North. Mr. Yeaman justified his sup- 
port of the amendment on the ground that "it is wise and is 
required by the facts and circumstances which surround the 
people of Kentucky and of the nation, and which have been 
called into being and power by the war, and which they must 
deal with and camiot avoid.'' 

Nothing, said Mr. Smith, surprised him more than the ad- 
vocacy in Congress at this day of doctrines which had their 
origin in the heated brains of Southern fire-eaters, and which 
had brought the country to its present deplorable condition. 
The Constitution emanated from the people, "and when the 
people see proper to amend their fundamental law, if it is in 
harmony with that instrument itself, and in accordance with 
the best interests of the people, he who dares proclaim the 
sentiment that it is not only the right but the sacred duty of 
an individual State to resist such an amendment when adopted, 
announces himself as a revolutionist and deserves the execra- 



The Thirteenth Amendment 159 

tion of men who favor law and order in the land." Mr. Smith 
advocated the amendment because he wanted peace in Ken- 
tucky — because he wanted the people of the whole country 
united. It was slavery that kept the South down, unprosper- 
ous and undeveloped. The time had come, and he thanked 
God for it, when they could destroy the institution. Then 
Kentucky would stand among the proudest of the States of 
the Union. 

Thaddeus Stevens and Mr. Pendleton inevitably came into 
conflict when the war or its cause was under consideration. 

When we all moulder in the dust [said the former in reply to his 
antagonist], he may have his epitaph written, if it be truly written, 
"Here rests the ablest and most pertinacious defender of slavery, 
and opponent of liberty" ; and I will be satisfied if my epitaph shall 
be written thus: "Here lies one who never rose to any eminence, 
and who only courted the low ambition to have it said that he had 
striven to ameliorate the condition of the poor, the lowly, the down- 
trodden of every race and language and color." 

Such was the popular interest excited by the debate on the 
amendment, when the day for taking the vote on the adoption 
of the resolution arrived, that the floor and galleries of the 
hall of the House presented an animated scene. Members of 
the Supreme Court, Senators and Cabinet officers were upon 
the floor. The representatives of foreign governments occu- 
pied the diplomatic gallery. The other galleries were filled 
with ladies, distinguished citizens visiting the capital, officers 
on leave of absence from the army and the brilliant corre- 
spondents of the newspaper press. The brief closing speeches 
allowed occupied the time until four o'clock. The vote on 
the adoption of the resolution was taken amid breathless 
silence. There was applause when the Speaker, Mr. Colfax, 
voted "aye." This ends the voting. Swift pencils run up 
the division lists. The clerk whispers to the Speaker, who 
says with visible emotion; "The constitutional majority of 
two-thirds having voted in the affirmative, the joint resolution 



i6o A Political History of Slavery 

is adopted." There were in fact five more than two-thirds,* 
The announcement was received with such an outburst of 
enthusiasm as was never before witnessed in that hall. Mem- 
bers sprang to their feet, cheering and clapping their hands; 
the spectators in the galleries applauded, the ladies rising and 
waving their handkerchiefs. As this manifestation of joy 
subsided after several minutes' duration, Mr. IngersoU of 
Illinois said: "Mr. Speaker, in honor of this immortal and 
sublime event I move that the House do now adjourn." 

As the audience dispersed, the conviction was in every heart 
that a mighty work had been accomplished — that the way 
leading to a reunion of the States and the establishment of 
peace and fraternity had been entered upon at last. Some 
months before Mr. Sumner had seen the fugitive slave laws 
blotted out by this same Congress, and now the institution 
which had erected them for its protection received a fatal 
blow. The amendment received the vote of three-fourths of 
the States as required, and on the i8th of December, 1865, 
by proclamation of the President, the Thirteenth Amendment 
became a part of the Constitution of the United States. 

While the Thirteenth Amendment was still on the calendar 
of the House, the subject of reconstruction was receiving at- 
tention. There was a wide difference of opinion among the 
supporters of the government as to the status of rebellious 
States; as to the limitations of the military powers of the 
executive, and the extent of the jurisdiction of the legislative 
department of the government in the work of reconstruction. 
The conditions were anomalous. The questions arising there- 
from were new and of vast importance, and their consideration 
invited a free interchange of views. That there should be a 
conflict of opinion in a free country was inevitable. The re- 
grettable thing is that the President and the leaders of the 
factions in Congress did not reach some harmonious basis of 
action before the work of reconstruction was entered upon. 

' The vote stood : Yeas, 119; nays, 56; not voting, 8. For the debate in the 
House, see Cong. Globe, ist and 2d Sessions, Thirty-eighth Congress. The vote 
was taken January 31, 1865. 



Beginnings of Reconstruction i6i 

We have seen that the appointment of military governors when 
the army had obtained a foothold in the States fell under the 
censure of Mr. Stevens and other radicals, but the policy had 
the approval of Unionists generally. The restoration of order 
and its preservation through the administration of local law- 
was the first step in the work of reconstruction. After that, 
consideration of the larger question should follow in an orderly 
manner, without an undue intervention of the military power. 
Mr. Lincoln was impatient for the restoration of one or more 
of the seceded States. This work once accomplished would 
make a profound impression upon England and France, whose 
unfriendly attitude was a constant source of anxiety. It 
would encourage the people of the loyal States to cheerful 
perseverance in the only practical course to overcome the re- 
bellion. If the confederate power could be expelled from 
Tennessee, he felt that the large population of Unionists in 
that State could restore the supremacy of civil law and bring 
Tennessee once more within the Union fold. Hence the 
urgency of his appeals to the military commanders. The plan 
of reconstruction which he believed to be practicable was 
outlined in his annual message, December, 1863, and in his 
amnesty proclamation. In the former he held that the con- 
stitutional obligation to guarantee to every State in the Union 
a republican form of government 

contemplates a case wherein the elements within a State favorable 
to republican government in the Union may be too feeble for an op- 
posite and hostile element external to or even within the State, and 
such are precisely the cases with which we are now dealing. An at- 
tempt to guarantee and protect a revived State government con- 
structed in whole or in preponderating part from the very element 
against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected is simply 
absurd. There must be a test by which to separate the opposing 
elements so as to build only from the sound, and that test is a suffi- 
ciently liberal one which accepts as sound whosoever will make a 
sworn recantation of his former unsoundness. 

The form of this test was given in the proclamation. A 



i62 A Political History of Slavery 

government established in the manner prescribed he declared 
would be recognized by the President as the true government 
of the State. This much was held to be within the power of 
the executive. The admission of persons elected under the 
same State government to the two Houses of Congress he de- 
clared, "rests exclusively with the respective Houses, and not 
to any extent with the executive." 

Holding to this view, the President proceeded to the exe- 
cution of his plan in Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee. 
He had before urged upon loyal citizens in those States the 
importance of prompt action, and had carefully instructed the 
ofificers representing the government in their duties. There 
were popular movements in both Louisiana and Arkansas 
looking to the establishment of State governments. A large 
convention held in New Orleans on the 8th of January, 1864, 
adopted resolutions endorsing the proclamations of the Presi- 
dent. Three days later General Banks, then in command of 
the military district, to whom the President had confided the 
task of reconstructing Louisiana rather than to Governor 
Shepley, issued a proclamation as requested by the convention 
appointing an election for State ofificers on the 22d of Feb- 
ruary, who were to be installed on the 4th of March. Michael 
Hahn, representing the conservative policy of the President, 
received a majority of the votes cast and was declared elected 
Governor.' The franchise was limited, of course, to white 
citizens who had taken the oath prescribed in the amnesty 
proclamation. The scheme of reconstruction was completed 
by the adoption in September of a constitution which had been 
formed in a convention duly elected for that purpose, whose 
sessions began on the first Monday in April. The constitution 
provided for immediate emancipation, without conditions or 
compensation. It conferred upon the Legislature the power tO' 
grant the right of suffrage to negroes, and required that pro-/ 

' Of the 11,411 votes cast, Mr. Hahn received 6183; B. F. Flanders, candi- 
date of the radical free State party, received 2232 ; and C. Roselius, candidate 
of the planters, who wished the State recognized under the old constitution and 
slavery preserved, received 2996 votes. 



Beginnings of Reconstruction 163 

vision should be made for the education of all children without 
distinction as to color. Mr. Lincoln, in a letter to Governor 
Hahn, had said: 

And now you are about to have a convention which among other 
things will probably define the elective franchise. I barely suggest 
for your private consideration whether some of the colored people 
may not be let in, as for instance the very intelligent and especially 
those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would proba- 
bly help in some trying time in the future to keep the jewel of Lib- 
erty in the family of Freedom, 

The reader will do well to keep this passage in mind. 

Similar proceedings and elections took place in Arkansas 
during the winter and spring of 1864. A constitution which 
abolished slavery and prohibited the payment of any obligation 
incurred by the State in behalf of rebellion was adopted by a 
popular vote of 11,953 for, to 226 against it, representing forty 
counties of the State. Isaac Murphy was installed as Gov- 
ernor, three members of Congress were elected, and William 
M. Fishback and Elisha Baxter were chosen United States 
Senators to fill the vacancies of the previous incumbents. 
When these gentlemen presented their credentials at Washing- 
ton, the whole subject of reconstruction was under considera- 
tion in both Houses of Congress, and they were not admitted 
to seats. In the Senate Mr. Sumner offered the following 
resolution, which is a clear statement of the attitude of 
Congress : 

Resolved, That a State pretending to secede from the Union, and 
battling against the general government to maintain that position 
must be regarded as a rebel State, subject to military occupation, 
and without representation on this floor, until it has been readmitted 
by a vote of both Houses of Congress; and the Senate will decline 
to entertain any application from any such rebel State until after 
such a vote of both Houses, 

Mr. Sumner held that the power to determine the status of 
the seceded States and to initiate the preliminary process for 



1 64 A Political History of Slavery 

their restoration was exclusively vested in Congress ; and that 
the purely military authority of the President was provisional 
in its scope. "Permanent civil governments with a right of 
representation in Congress and in the electoral college cannot 
be constituted by the President."' Mr. Sumner quoted the 
opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case 
of Luther vs. Borden (7 Howard, 42), that under the fourth 
article of the Constitution "it rests with Congress to decide 
what government is the established one in a State. For as 
the United States guarantee to each State a republican form 
of government, Congress must necessarily decide what govern- 
ment is established in the State before it can determine whether 
it is republican or not. " Applying this rule to Arkansas, where 
a republican government had been overthrown by rebellion, 
Mr. Sumner said further: "Congress must see that such gov- 
ernment is restored ; and to this end it has all needful power. 
Congress, and not the President, must decide when the restora- 
tion has taken place." While many did not adopt Mr. Sum- 
ner's views on some phases of the subject, it was clearly the 
purpose of Congress to retain control of the reconstruction of 
the insurgent States. . 

Henry Winter Davis of Maryland, chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Rebellious States, on the 15th of February reported 
"a bill to guarantee a republican form of government to cer- 
tain States whose governments had been overthrown," which 
embodied the congressional plan of reconstruction. It 
authorized the President to appoint for each of the States 
declared in rebellion a provisional Governor who was charged 
with the civil administration until a State government should 
be organized. It made it the duty of said Governor, as soon 
as military resistance to the United States ceased, to direct 
the marshal to enroll all the white male citizens in their re- 
spective counties, submitting to each an oath to support the 
Constitution. If a majority of the citizens should take and 
subscribe the oath, the Governor was to order an election of 
delegates to a constitutional convention. This convention 

» Cong. Globe, June 13, 1S64, p. 2898. 



Bill for Reconstruction 165 

was required to declare, on behalf of the people of the State, 
their submission to the Constitution and laws of the United 
States, and incorporate in their own organic law the following 
provisions : 

1. No person who has held or exercised any office, civil or mili- 
tary, except offices merely ministerial and military below the grade 
of colonel, State or Confederate, under the usurping power, shall 
vote for or be a member of the Legislature or Governor, 

2. Involuntary servitude is forever prohibited, and the freedom 
of all persons is forever guaranteed in the State. 

3. No debt. State or Confederate, created by or under the usurp- 
ing power, shall be recognized or paid by the State. 

When a constitution containing these provisions should be 
framed by the convention and adopted by the popular vote 
as already enrolled, the Governor should certify that fact to 
the President, who, after obtaining the assent of Congress, 
should by proclamation declare the State government so 
established to be the constitutional government of the State, 
competent to elect Senators and Representatives in Congress 
and electors of President and Vice-President. 

This bill agreed with the President's plan substantially as 
to the classes to be excluded on account of participation in 
the rebellion, and as to the qualification for suffrage. It was 
more explicit as to the prohibition of slavery and in guaran- 
teeing the freedom of all persons forever, and it required the 
assent of a majority instead of only one-tenth to all of these 
conditions— thus establishing a solid basis for order and the 
security for freedom. It was in these respects wiser and juster 
than the President's plan. 

The Democratic opposition objected to the President's po- 
sition that the insurgent States had forfeited their State gov- 
ernments, and his conditions that the people of those States 
must now repudiate the constitutions which governed them 
peacefully many years and form new ones, and also renounce 
their right to their slave property. This was declared to be 
an abandonment of the doctrine previously announced by 



1 66 A Political History of Slavery 

Congress and the President — that all the acts of the insurgent 
States and people tending to their secession and independence 
were void; and that when the force of rebellion should be 
spent, it would leave the constitutions, laws, property and 
institutions of those States in every respect the same that they 
were previously excepting only the changes produced by the 
mere shock of arms, the principle, status ante bellum, being 
applicable.' This argument failed to recognize the fact that 
the prolongation of the war had inevitably involved the de- 
struction of slavery by the military power, and that under any 
plan of reconstruction the freed people could not be returned 
to slavery. 

The Democrats held to the doctrine that the seceded States 
were still in the Union ' and that by ceasing to war upon the 
general government, and on the election of Senators and 
Representatives, they could resume their relations to the other 
States. They had the authority of the administration for this 
opinion. When the French Emperor, through M. Drouyn de 
I'Huys, suggested that the United States government should 
appoint commissioners to meet, on neutral ground, commis- 
sioners of the Confederacy, Mr. Seward replied that there was 
a better forum for such conferences than the one suggested by 
the Emperor: that "the Congress of the United States fur- 
nishes the constitutional forum for debates between the 
alienated parties. Senators and Representatives from the 
loyal portion of the people are there already ; and seats are 
vacant and inviting Senators and Representatives of the dis- 
contented party, who may be constitutionally sent there from 
the States involved in the insurrection." ^ 

The proposition stated by Mr. Davis in his speech in ex- 
position of the principles of the bill, that the fourth article of 
the Constitution as declared by Chief Justice Taney in the 
opinion of the court in Luther vs. Borden, vested in the Con- 

' Resolutions of Garrett Davis, and remarks on the motion for his expulsion, — 
Cong, Globe, Jan. 13, 1864. 

* This was Republican doctrine, too, but differences arose as to the penalties 
incurred by rebellion. ^Diplomatic Correspondence, Feb. 6, 1863. 



Bill for Reconstruction 167 

gress a plenary, supreme, unlimited political jurisdiction, 
paramount over courts, subject only to the judgment of the 
people of the United States, embracing within its scope every 
legislative measure necessary and proper to make it effectual, 
Mr. Pendleton declared to be monstrous. 

It subjects all the States to the will of Congress; it places their 
institutions at the feet of Congress. It creates in Congress an ab- 
solute, unqualified despotism. . . . The rights of the people of 
the State are nothing; their will is nothing. Congress first decides; 
the people of the whole Union revise. . . . Woe be to the day 
when that doctrine shall be established, for from its centralized 
despotism we will appeal to the sword.' 

When the bill was before the Senate, the chief defence of the 
Democratic position fell to Mr. Carlile of West Virginia. 
The settled law of the land, said he, infringed for the first time 
by the admission of West Virginia, was that the Congress had 
no power to impose by law limitations affecting the right of 
the people of a State to regulate their own domestic affairs, 
even when sought to be applied to the inhabitants of a terri- 
tory seeking admission into the Union. Then, carrying his 
argument to its logical conclusion, he declared that if Con- 
gress could limit the power of the people as to one subject of 
domestic legislation, it could as to all. If it could make one 
provision of a constitution for a people, it could make the en- 
tire instrument itself.^ To reach the extreme positions taken 
by Mr. Pendleton and Senator Carlile (who labored for the 
preservation of the institution of slavery, the inciting cause 
of the rebellion), it was necessary to deny the application of 
the constitutional provision requiring the United States to 
guarantee a republican form of government, and the decision 
of the Supreme Court placing the duty wholly with Congress. 
Mr. Wade had charge of the bill in the Senate, and on the 
1st of July explained its provisions. He did not fail to con- 
trovert the doctrine that States might lose their organization, 
their rights as States, and their corporate capacity by rebellion. 

' Annual Cyclopedia, 1864, p. 298. Cong. Globe, May 4th. ^ Ibid., p. 302. 



1 68 A Political History of Slavery 

He held, on the contrary, that once a State of the Union always 
a State ; that wrong and violence cannot displace the rights of 
anybody or disorganize the State. The framers of the Consti- 
tution, foreseeing that some States might go into rebellion and 
set up some hostile government of their own, made provision for 
such a contingency. "The act of rebellion is void. It may have 
physical force for the moment to displace rights; but the law 
never yields to any such power as that. The law never any- 
where acknowledges that right can be overthrown by wrongful 
action." The general government, therefore, interposes the 
strong arm of power to prevent the subversion of government 
and of rights, and under the authority given by the organic law 
guarantees to such States a republican form of government. 

In justification of the clause in the bill making emancipation 
a condition of reconstruction, Mr. Wade said : 

The sad experience of this terrible revolution has, as we Union 
men believe, grown out of the institution of slavery alone. Would 
we then, in guaranteeing a republican form of government, suffer it 
to be mixed up with anomalous elements calculated to destroy im- 
mediately what we set up? In the light of our present experience I 
ask any man who is a lover of peace and who intends to make a con- 
stitution that shall live forever, saying nothing of slavery in any other 
than a political point of view, would it be safe, would it be wise for 
us in the work of reconstruction to permit the insurgent States to 
retain this element of discord? 

The bill was passed in the closing hours of the session and 
laid before the President, who was present at the Capitol to 
facilitate the execution of business. He declined to sign it, 
nor did he veto it. He pocketed it, and thereby affronted 
the legislative department. It would seem that Mr. Lincoln 
was either not indifferent to the assertions of the press that the 
measure was meant as a rebuke to him, and to the criticisms 
members let fall in debate ; or, that he was determined to force 
Congress to accept his plan of reconstruction. He was not 
wont to let pride of opinion stand in the way of the promotion 
of the common welfare, and yet he showed a feeling of resent- 



Congress and President Differ 169 

ment in this instance. It was unfortunate for the country. 
A few months will show the evil the disagreement between 
Congress and the President foreboded. 

Mr. Lincoln adopted the unprecedented course of issuing a 
proclamation ' in which he referred to the bill he had declined 
to sign as the expression of the sense of Congress upon the 
subject of reconstruction. This plan he now thought fit to lay- 
before the people for their consideration. He added that he 
was, as in December when he had propounded a plan for 
restoration, unprepared by a formal approval of this bill to 
commit himself inflexibly to any single plan of restoration, and 
also unprepared to declare that the free State constitutions 
and governments already adopted and installed in Louisiana 
and Arkansas should be set aside and held for naught, thereby 
repelling and discouraging the loyal citizens who had set up 
the same, or to declare a constitutional competency in Con- 
gress to abolish slavery in the States — though sincerely hoping 
at the same time that a constitutional amendment abolishing 
slavery in all the States might be adopted. Nevertheless he 
was fully satisfied with the system for restoration contained 
in the bill as one very proper for the loyal people of any State 
choosing to adopt it; and he was, and at all times should be, 
prepared to give the executive aid and assistance to any such 
people, so soon as the military resistance to the United States 
should be suppressed in such State, and the people thereof 
should have sufficiently returned to their obedience to the 
Constitution and laws of the United States— in which cases 
military governors would be appointed, with directions to 
proceed according to the bill. 

1 Dated July 8, 1864. 

" Mr. Sumner stated, on the floor of the Senate, that he had had an interview 
with President Lincoln immediately after the publication of that proclamation, 
and it was the subject of very minute and protracted conversation, in the course 
of which, after discussing the details, Mr. Lincoln expressed his regret that he 
had not approved the bill. I have always thought that Mr. Lincoln made a 
serious mistake in defeating a measure which, if adopted, would have averted 
many if not all the difficulties that subsequently arose in the reconstruction of the 
rebel States." — Recollections of John Sherman, vol. i., p. 361. 



ijo A Political History of Slavery 

Presidents before and since Mr. Lincoln's time, when not 
wholly approving a measure, but reluctant to disregard the 
opinion of the representatives of the people, have affixed their 
signatures and accompanied the act with reasons therefor. 
In this way the differences have been referred to the people 
for their consideration, without risk of interrupting the public 
business. The extraordinary course of Mr. Lincoln invited a 
counter proclamation on behalf of Congress. This shortly 
appeared in the form of a "Protest," written in vigorous and 
caustic language and signed by Benjamin F. Wade and Henry 
Winter Davis, who had had charge of the bill in the two 
Houses. They pointed out the differences between the two 
plans of reconstruction, to the disadvantage of the President's, 
and concluded their formidable arraignment in the following 
language : 

The President has greatly presumed on the forbearance which the 
supporters of his administration have so long practised, in view of 
the arduous conflict in which we are engaged, and the reckless 
ferocity of our political opponents. But he must understand that our 
support is of a cause and not of a man ; that the authority of Con- 
gress is paramount and must be respected; that the whole body of the 
Union men of Congress will not submit to be impeached by him of 
rash and unconstitutional legislation; and if he wishes our support 
he must confine himself to his executive duties — to obey and exe- 
cute, not make the laws — to suppress by arms armed rebellion and 
leave political reorganization to Congress.' 

An effort was made in the next session to secure a recog- 
nition by Congress of Mr. Lincoln's Louisiana government, 
under the lead of Senator Trumbull, but notwithstanding the 
Union majority were working in harmony with the President, 
it was defeated through the persistent opposition of Mr. Sum- 
ner." In the absence of a closure rule in the Senate, it is pos- 

' Annual Cyclopedia, p. 307, et seq. 

* Pierce's Sumner, vol. iv., p. 219. The author says: "No part of Mr. Lin- 
coln's entire official course was so open to exception as that which he pursued on 
this subject of reconstruction ; where he seemed to assert power for himself to the 
exclusion of the people of the United States and of Congress." 



Two Views of Lincoln 171 

sible for a minority effectually to obstruct legislation. Mr. 
Lincoln, however, triumphed, and kept control of the work 
of reconstruction. 

The quarrel was thrust before the country while the presi- 
dential campaign was in progress, and at a time when the 
feeling of discouragement was widespread. Mr. Lincoln was 
the candidate of the Union party, and was himself at this time 
doubtful of his election. That candidacy is an important part 
of the history of 1864. 

There were two Lincolns filling the office of President — the 
Lincoln of the plain people, and the Lincoln of the community 
of Washington. To the former he was a homely, honest, con- 
scientious and kindly man, who was disinterestedly seeking 
the welfare of the nation, surrounded by difficulties and temp- 
tations and having to contend with the machinations of crafty 
and ambitious men. To them he was the embodiment of 
benevolence, of tenderness, of fatherly solicitude, for they 
had heard of the pardoning of a youthful soldier condemned 
to death by the stern law of war for sleeping at his post. To 
them he was the oracle of wisdom, for he needed no other in- 
terpreter than their understanding. "Lincoln is just such a 
man," said an English mechanic w^ho had been received at the 
White House — "Lincoln is just such a man as I love to be in 
company with. Wq finds a bright side in every question, and is 
sure to illustrate his argument with a witty joke." This 
workingman had just immigrated, and, as one of a committee 
of three, called upon the President to explain a mechanics' 
strike. How natural and graphic is his description of the 
scene : 

We opened the door ourselves. Mr. Lincoln was busy writing. 
When we had reached about half way into the room, he sprang to 
his feet with a smartness that quite surprised me, shook hands with 
all in turn, drew forth some chairs and requested us to be seated. 
When we had complied, he sat down himself, threw out his long legs 
in true Yankee style, drew his hand across his face lighted up with 
honest smiles, and began, "Well, gentlemen, I see what your busi- 
ness is by your note," but it is useless to set down all that was said. 



172 A Political History of Slavery 

I can say, that it is almost impossible to keep a straight face in his 
company, he being so brimful of jokes, all having some bearing on 
the subject under consideration. But now and again in his argu- 
ment he rivets your serious attention. You cannot misunderstand 
him, he is so solid.' 

Is not that the Lincoln whom all love and revere — the 
Lincoln immortal in history? In the most surprising way, 
the common people in England had early learned to know the 
man, Lincoln, even as the mass of Americans knew him in 
their hearts, and waited patiently for him to overcome the 
rebellion. They wanted cotton to keep the mills employed, 
but they wanted first the bondmen set free. They sent Mr. 
Lincoln messages of encouragement to which he feelingly 
responded. 

Under the circumstances [said he], I cannot but regard your de- 
cisive utterances upon the question as an instance of sublime Chris- 
tian heroism, which has not been surpassed in any age or in any 
country. It is indeed an energetic and reinspiring assurance of the 
inherent power of truth, and of the ultimate and universal triumph 
of justice, humanity and freedom.'^ 

There was a lack of harmony between official Washington 
and the President. Congress disapproved of him while sup- 
porting him with all the power of the legislature at d all the 
wealth of the nation. Officials, even members of his Cabinet, 
disapproved of him, because of his strange and unbusinesslike 
methods. There was a poetic quality in Lincoln's nature in 
constant rebellion against the prosaic duties of his position. 
He could think profoundly, he could express his thoughts in 
original and forceful language, and, when the occasion called 
for it, he proved himself a greater master of statecraft than 
any of his compeers. But he longed for human sympathy ; 
he loved the bright, the genial, the companionable side of life, 
his heart melted in the presence of distress and sorrow; he 

' Manchester (Eng.) Guardian. 

' Letter to the workingmen of Manchester, Jan. 19, 1863. Raymond's Lincoln, 
p. 497. 



Two Views of Lincoln i t^ 

hated the sight of bonds, the cold rigidity of formal rules. So 
misunderstood was he in official Washington, that the question 
was asked, Can this man ever be serious? It was observed by 
a good and highly intelligent man that in the political life of 
Washington, the most striking thing was the absence of per- 
sonal loyalty to the President ; that he had no admirers, no 
enthusiastic supporters, none "to bet on his head."' This 
was after Mr. Lincoln had been in office two years. Something 
of this was due to the alienation of friends on failing to receive 
official appointments, and something to offended pride or re- 
sentment following the rejection of advice. But there w^ere 
men of culture and high purposes, profoundly in earnest, who 
felt with Mr. Chase that Mr. Lincoln did not act or talk or 
feel like the ruler of a great empire in a great crisis. Hence 
we are prepared for the remark that the influence of this opin- 
ion had a "disastrous effect on all departments and classes of 
officials, as well as on the public." ' Fourteen months later 
this same observer, expresses a deeper and more sympathetic 
interest in the President after frequent intercourse with him. 
"His life seems a series of wise, sound conclusions, slowly 
reached, oddly worked out, on great questions, with constant 
failures in administration of details and dealings with indi- 
viduals." ' 

The cautious and moderate policy of the President, dictated 
by wise sagacity in a crisis, had from the beginning been con- 
demned by the radical element of the Republican party. Its 
support was given to the government from a patriotic sense 
of duty, but grudgingly. Naturally and consistently when 
the time approached for holding a national convention of the 
party, those who believed that the situation of the country 
demanded an executive in all respects tliorongh, cast about 
for a candidate who possessed the qualities they most admired. 
Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, possessed their confi- 
dence to a greater degree than any other public man. He 
had not at any time concealed his dissatisfaction with Mr. 

' Letters of Richard Henry Dana to Charles Francis Adams. Adams's Dana, 
vol. ii., p. 264. "^ Ibid. ^ Ibid., ^. ii^. 



174 A Political History of Slavery 

Lincoln's policy, and with the management of the Army of 
the Potomac. He had carried this freedom of expression, of 
dissent, perhaps, beyond the limits of propriety, considering 
his official relations. Yet it was the customary thing for the 
members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, with the exception of Mr. 
Seward, to allow themselves great latitude in criticising each 
other and the general conduct of affairs. This tendency, doubt- 
less, was aggravated by the dominating disposition and love of 
intrigue in political affairs of Mr. Blair. He fell heir to the 
methods of the Jackson regime. Between him and the dignified 
head of the Treasury Department there was a natural antipathy. 
Mr. Chase's feelings toward Mr. Lincoln were expressed in 
a letter to the latter written on Washington's birthday, an- 
nouncing to him that he had yielded to the solicitations of a 
committee of Senators and Representatives, and had consented 
to the use of his name for the presidency. He cherished for 
him "sincere respect and esteem" and "affection." This is 
confirmed in a letter previously written to a friend, in which 
he said that, if to his kindliness of spirit and good sense Mr. 
Lincoln " joined strong will and energetic action, there would 
be little left to wish for in him." This opinion was generally 
shared by those earnest radicals who were early anti-slavery 
men, and who now wanted thorough work in dealing with the 
slavery question. But there were conservatives who preferred 
the nomination of Mr. Chase to that of Mr. Lincoln, believing 
that the former had more executive ability than Mr. Lincoln. 
Mr. Sherman was a representative of this class.' Some of 
Mr. Chase's radical supporters were so indiscreet as to show a 
feeling of resentment towards the President, which was calcu- 
lated to injure the Secretary of the Treasury rather than his 
chief. Senator Pomeroy of Kansas not only arraigned the ad- 
ministration in a speech on the floor of the Senate, but he issued 
a circular in which he declared that if Mr. Lincoln should receive 
the nomination at Baltimore he would be defeated at the polls. 

^ Letter to the editor of the Cincinnati Gazette, March 3, 1864. Mr. Sherman 
added : "If Mr. Lincoln should be nominated he will receive my hearty support. 
I have no doubt he will be elected, if nominated." 



Opposition to Mr. Lincoln 175 

Mr. Lincoln had the instinct of popularity and he knew 
better than any other public man of his time when and how 
to invoke it. Thus in December, 1863, one within the inner 
circle of his political friends said confidently: "Mr. Lincoln 
will surely keep his head above water with the radicals. His 
last proclamation has settled the issue as between him and 
Chase. You can overturn a pyramid as easily as you can upset 
Lincoln in popular esteem." ' But the interests of Mr. Lin- 
coln were not left to the chances of popular favor, inconsistent 
as the winds of heaven. There was organization over which 
was the directing mind of Montgomery Blair, the Postmaster- 
General. The plan of campaign was that every State should 
declare for Mr. Lincoln in advance of any convention. The 
merit of this plan lay in preoccupying the field and directing 
the public attention to one candidate. The Blairs persuaded 
the Legislature of Maryland to declare for the renomination 
of Mr. Lincoln. A similar resolution was adopted by the 
Pennsylvania Legislature on the suggestion of Simon Cameron. 
These able politicians knew from their experience in the Jack- 
son-Clay contests the value of such expressions in setting the 
current in the right direction. This was the policy adopted 
to settle the issue between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Chase. 
"How," it was asked, "would Governor Brough and the 
Legislature view such a movement in Ohio?"' The answer 
was the most significant compliment the President received. 
He must have been greatly gratified. In February, in a 
Union caucus, held in the hall of the House of Representa- 
tives at Columbus, which was attended by the State ofificers 
and many of the citizens of the State active in the war, and 
which was addressed by the Governor, the following resolution 
was adopted by a unanimous vote: 

Resolved, That in the opinion of this convention, the people of 
Ohio and her soldiers in the army, demand the renomination of 
Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the United States. 

'The Hon. Joseph H. Barrett to the writer. MS, 
^ Letter to the writer, Jan. 22(1. J/S. 



1 76 A Political History of Slavery 

The animation of the speakers and the enthusiasm with 
which the resolution was received dissipated all doubt as to 
what the public sentiment of Ohio was. Mr. Chase recogniz- 
ing it, withdrew his name from the canvass in a graceful letter. 
Radicals who still hoped to prevent Mr. Lincoln's selection 
met in Cleveland on the 31st of May and nominated General 
Fremont for President and General John Cochrane of New 
York for Vice-President. The platform favored the prosecu- 
tion of the war, the preservation of the writ of habeas corpus, 
the right of asylum,' amendments to the Constitution to pre- 
vent the continuance or re-establishment of slavery, and the 
maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine. It declared for the 
election of President by direct vote of the people, for a single 
term, and for the confiscation of the lands of the rebels and 
their distribution among the soldiers and actual settlers. In 
his letter of acceptance. General Fremont repudiated the con- 
fiscation clause of the platform. He intimated that if the 
Baltimore convention would nominate any one but Mr. Lin- 
coln he would withdraw in favor of that nominee. He 
announced that he had resigned his commission in the army. 

There were others in opposition, who attempted to change 
the current of popular favor from Mr. Lincoln to General 
Grant. An enthusiastic mass meeting held in New York, June 
4th, to express gratitude to that general and the soldiers under 
his command, was used to mask the movement. Taking ad- 
vantage of an invitation to be present, the President wrote a 
letter eulogizing General Grant and the army and expressing 
the hope that those participating in the meeting would so 
shape their good words that they might turn to men and guns, 
moving to the support of that general and his brave soldiers, 
who were in the midst of their great trial. Thus the meeting 
was used for a good purpose. General Grant let it be made 
known through a friend that he would not accept a nomination 
to the presidency, and that his name could not be used by 
politicians to divide Union men. 

' With reference to the surrender of Don Jose Augustine Arguelles, who was a 
colonel in the Spanish army, to the authorities of Cuba without a hearing. 



Renomination of Lincoln 177 

The national Union-Republican convention, numbering five 
hundred delegates, met at Baltimore on Tuesday, June 7th. 
Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas were represented, as well 
as all of the loyal States. An interesting incident was the 
enthusiastic reception given to the Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge 
of Kentucky, who was made temporary chairman. Ex- 
Governor William Dennison of Ohio was made permanent 
president. After perfecting the organization, the convention 
adjourned till Wednesday morning. The committee on cre- 
dentials reported in favor of admitting the radical Union 
delegation of Missouri, as the one regularly chosen, and ex- 
cluding the conservative Union, or Blair delegation, and the 
convention sustained the report. The committee also re- 
ported in favor of admitting to seats the delegations from 
Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas, without the right to vote. 
On motion of Preston King, the report was amended, giving 
them equal privileges in the convention with delegates from 
other States. The adoption of the amendment decided the 
choice of Vice-President. Before this result was reached, 
Thaddeus Stevens made an effort to secure the adoption of a 
resolution against the admission of delegates from insurgent 
States until specifically re-admitted to the Union. He was 
unsuccessful. This was a Lincoln convention, and the Lincoln 
policy of reconstruction could not be so summarily dealt with. 

The platform, which was reported by Henry J. Raymond, 
chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, was a concise ex- 
pression of the principles and policy of the party of the day. 
There was no appeal to the dead past. What the experience 
of war had shown to be necessary for the salvation of the Re- 
public was affirmed as the policy to be pursued until all should 
be made secure. This policy required the maintenance of the 
army and navy for the prosecution of the war with vigor, and 
a determination "not to compromise with rebels nor to offer 
them any terms of peace except such as may be based upon an 
unconditional surrender of their hostility and a return to their 
just allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the United 
States." It declared "that as slavery was the cause and now 



VOL. II.— 12. 



178 A Political History of Slavery 

constitutes the strength of this rebellion, and as it must be 
always and everywhere hostile to the principles of a republican 
government, justice and the national safety demand its utter 
and complete extirpation from the soil of the Republic " ; and 
that, while upholding the acts and proclamations by which the 
government in its own defence had aimed a death-blow at 
this gigantic evil, there was yet need for such an amendment 
to the Constitution as should terminate and forever prohibit 
the existence of slavery within the jurisdiction of the United 
States. It required the government to protect all men em- 
ployed in its armies without distinction of color, and to keep 
inviolate the national faith pledged for the redemption of the 
public debt. The reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine by the 
Secretary of State, in his protest against the occupation of 
Mexico by the French, was approved. A hint was conveyed 
to the President to reorganize his Cabinet, in the general ex- 
pression that harmony should prevail in the national councils. 
All of the delegates voted for Mr. Lincoln as the presi- 
dential nominee, except those from Missouri, who were in- 
structed to cast their votes for General Grant. A motion to 
declare the vote unanimous was carried amid great enthusiasm. 
The charge of sectionalism made in 1856 and i860 against the 
Republican party, on the ground that its candidates were se- 
lected from the North, influenced some to favor the candidacy 
of Andrew Johnson for Vice-President, and as he received the 
support of more than half of the New York delegation and the 
votes of three insurgent States admitted to seats in the con- 
vention against the protest of Mr. Stevens, he was nominated. 
When the despatch announcing the result was handed to 
Governor Brough, at Columbus, he exclaimed: "It is a fatal 
blunder. Trouble will come of it. I know the man." ' Mr. 
Lincoln dictated the nomination of Mr. Johnson. For months 
before the meeting of the Baltimore convention the names of 
several War Democrats had been considered in connection 
with the of^ce of Vice-President. Mr. Lincoln finally se- 
lected Andrew Johnson, at that time conspicuous on account 

' Diary of the writer. MS. 



Renomination of Lincoln 



179 



of his efforts to restore Tennessee to the Union. Mr. Lincoln 
believed that to have a Southern Democrat as a running mate 
would greatly strengthen the ticket before the people, and 
that it would strengthen the Union sentiment abroad and 
lessen the peril of the intervention of England and France.' 
The selection of Daniel S. Dickinson would have been the 
recognition of the patriotic devotion to the cause of an able 
Democrat qualified for President. Or the nomination of Mr. 
Hamlin would have saved the convention from making a dis- 
crimination felt by many to be unjust. 

The success of this ticket depended largely on the army. 
The guns of Grant and Sherman and Sheridan spoke with 
greater effect than tongue of orator though never so eloquent. 

' Reminiscences of Col. Alex. K. McClure, long editor of the Philadelphia Times. 
Colonel McClure was confided in by Lincoln, and was one of the agents employed 
to bring about the nomination of Mr. Johnson. His account is very circumstantial. 







CHAPTER VII 

MILITARY DISCOURAGEMENTS — THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 
OF 1864— THE DOWNFALL OF THE CONFEDERACY 



BEFORE General Grant was made commander-in-chief 
in the field, the various armies had acted separately 
and independently of each other, giving the enemy an 
opportunity often of depleting one command not pressed, to 
reinforce another more actively engaged.' From Washington 
orders would be sent to officers to make certain movements of 
which they seldom approved, as, for example, the Red River 
expedition, which was condemned by General Banks as ill ad- 
vised, and if they fell short of the expectations of the War 
Department, results worked to the disadvantage of the 
officers. General Grant determined to stop this. He 
made the Army of the Potomac the centre of movement; all 
west to Memphis and north of the line, the right wing; the 
Army of the James, under General Butler, the left wing; and 
all south as a force in the rear of the enemy. Facing these, 
the confederate government had two armies — the Army of 
Northern Virginia, under the personal command of General 
Lee, and the forces under General Joseph E. Johnston, who 
was at Dalton, Georgia. General Grant's plan was to make a 
simultaneous movement all along the line. Sherman was to 
move from Chattanooga, Johnston's army and Atlanta being 
his objective points. General Crook, in command of the 
Kanawha district, was to move from the mouth of the Gauley 
River with a cavalry force and some artillery, the Virginia 
^Memoirs of General Grant, vol. ii., p. 127. 
180 



Grant in Command i8i 

& Tennessee railroad to be his objective. General Sigel, 
who was now in command in the valley of Virginia, was to 
advance up the valley covering the North from an invasion. 
General Butler was to advance by the James River, having 
Richmond and Petersburg as his objective. The cavalry force 
connected with the Army of the Potomac was placed under 
the command of General Sheridan.' 

The masterly movement of Grant from the Rapidan and 
through the Wilderness was followed by the terrible slaughter 
and repulse at Cold Harbor and the discouraging investment 
of Petersburg. Meanwhile the forward movement of General 
Sherman through Georgia was veiled from the public by the 
rigid exclusion from his army of professional correspondents, 
and the control of volunteer correspondents within his lines. 
The depressing effect of military stagnation in the vicinity of 
Richmond and of ignorance of Sherman's movements was 
heightened by the vigor exhibited by the rebel general, Early, 
in the Shenandoah valley and John Morgan in Kentucky, 
and by the activity of the secret societies in that State, Mis- 
souri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, in spreading the feeling of 
dissatisfaction. The President declared martial law in Ken- 
tucky, a measure deemed necessary by the sympathy shown to 
Morgan's men. The repulse of General Wallace at Monocacy 
led the President to call for twelve thousand militia from each 
of the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York. 
The audacity of the raiders in passing within four miles of 
Baltimore, capturing two trains on the Philadelphia & Balti- 
more railroad, and in menacing Washington, caused General 
Grant to send the Sixth Corps to aid in the defence, and also 
the Nineteenth, which had just arrived from New Orleans. 
The enemy retreated south of the Potomac July 13th, carry- 
ing away great quantities of property extorted from the Mary- 
landers. In the last week of July the rebels penetrated as far 
as Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, which, in default of $100,000 
in gold or $500,000 in currency demanded, they burnt to the 
ground. In addition to these mishaps the President had on 

' MefHoirs of General Grant, vol. ii., p. 129 et scq. 



1 82 A Political History of Slavery 

the i8th of July issued a call for another five hundred thou- 
sand men. The consternation caused by these events ofTset 
in a large degree the favorable news from Sherman, and the 
report of the sinking of the rebel cruiser Alabama, June loth, 
off Cherbourg, by the Kcarsarge under the command of Cap- 
tain Winslow. 

The resignation of the Secretary of the Treasury on the 
29th of June added to the political complications and to the 
feeling of dissatisfaction. Aside from the danger of perma- 
nently alienating the radicals, prudent business men were be- 
coming alarmed at the already vast proportions of the public 
debt, and the lavish expenditures made necessary by the large 
bounties authorized. The premium on gold was already fluc- 
tuating between 145 and 160, and on the announcement that 
the President proposed to make Governor Tod the successor 
of Mr. Chase touched 285, the highest point reached during 
the war.' The amount of the public debt was nearly $2,000,- 
000,000." The views of Mr. Chase on the finances were known 
to be conservative, — that he opposed measures tending to 
inflate the currency, and urged Congress to make provision 
for adequate taxation to sustain the credit of the country. 
His retirement, until the policy of Mr. Fessenden, who suc- 
ceeded him, was understood, was regarded as a calamity. 
The determining difference that constrained the Secretary to 
tender his resignation, and Mr. Lincoln to accept it, arose from 
the selection of a successor to Mr. Cisco, the able Assistant 
Treasurer of the United States at New York, who had re- 
signed the 1st of June. The President wished to oblige Sen- 
ator Morgan in the appointment, but Mr. Chase took exception 
to his selections. "I fear," he noted in his diary, " Sen- 
ator Morgan desires to make a political engine of the ofUce, 
and loses sight, in this desire, of the necessities of the service." 
It had been objected to Mr. Cisco by the politicians of New 
York, that all of his employees, except some half-dozen, were 

' The telegraphic financial report of July 5th stated that a few sales were made 
by bankers at 300. I have followed the record of the Gold Room. 
'The close of the fiscal year showed the debt to be $1,815,784,370. 



The Resignation of Chase 183 

Democrats. Mr. Chase thought the statement erroneous, but 
insisted that, if true, the Democrats were Union men of the 
type of Andrew Johnson, and therefore war men and admin- 
istration men. Efficiency and honesty were the qualifications 
the Secretary of the Treasury exacted. He defined the policy 
governing the administration of his office in his letter to the 
President inclosing his resignation : 

In recommendations for office I have sincerely sought to get the 
best men for the places to be filled without reference to any other 
classification than supporters and opponents of your administration. 
Of the latter I have recommended none; among the former I have 
desired to know no distinction except degrees of fitness. 

Perhaps his own selection in this case of disagreement lacked 
something of fitness. Be that as it may the difficulty was re- 
lieved by the withdrawal of Mr. Cisco's resignation.^ 

In accepting the resignation on the 30th, Mr. Lincoln de- 
scribed the situation in a sentence: "You and I have reached 
a point of mutual embarrassment in our official relations which 
it seems cannot be overcome or longer sustained consistently 

' Before the President accepted the resignation of Mr. Chase, he had a confer- 
ence with Governor Brough, who was then at the capital. An account of this, as 
related by the Governor, may throw some light on this interesting imbroglio. It 
is given here as written down on Governor Brough's return to Columbus. 

On his way to the War Department Governor Brough met the President, who 
insisted on his entering the Executive Mansion with him. " The truth is," said 
Mr. Lincoln, " I have a little matter on hand which concerns the State of Ohio, 
and which I have a notion to tell you, though you must remember that it is not 
public until to-morrow." The Governor assured Mr. Lincoln that he never de- 
sired such confidences as they usually proved troublesome, but he inquired: 
" What is it — another Treasury imbroglio?" 

Mr. Lincoln. " Right. Hit it the first time ; it is a Treasury imbroglio." 

Governor Brough. "Well, Mr. President, before going further, I have a 
question to ask : Is it beyond mediation ? " 

Mr. L. "Well" (hesitating), "perhaps and perhaps not. What do you 
propose ? " 

Gov. B. " First tell me the nature of the difficulty." 

Mr. L. "It 's about the Cisco business." 

Gov. B. "I don't wish to intrude, but for the interest of the country, and it 



1 84 A Political History of Slavery 

with the public service." And in this manner the two fore- 
most statesmen of the anti-slavery and war period parted from 
each other. Their relations had been formal, never cordial, 
from the first. The dignified and exacting Chase, impatient 
at Mr. Lincoln's ways, failed to discover his real greatness. 
Men of smaller calibre, loving intrigue, absorbed in the game 
of politics, who had access to the ear of the President, made 
the ambition of Mr. Chase the cover for mean and unwarranted 
calumnies. These put into circulation deeply wounded 
Mr. Chase and moved him to repel them in his corre- 
spondence, and to declare the motives of his official acts. To 
a friend at home he wrote : 

I have been working hard to raise the means to pay and clothe 
and feed the soldiers and sailors of the army and navy and to defray 
the costs of their great movements. My only ambition has been to 
contribute what I could in my place to the safety of the Republic 
and to promote the interests of the whole people and especially of 
the laboring masses, by the permanent establishment of a sound and 
uniform national currency/ 

General Frank P. Blair finally openly accused the Secretary of 
the Treasury of being engaged in cotton speculations, the 
baselessness and malignity of which charges were shown 

being nothing more serious than that, if you will delay action until to-morrow morn- 
ing when I can get the Ohio men together, I think it can be arranged." 

Mr. L. " But this is the third time he has thrown it at me, and I don't think 
I am called on to continue to beg him to take it back, especially when the country 
would not go to destruction in consequence." 

Gov. B. " This is not simply a personal matter. The people will not under- 
stand it. They will insist there is no longer any harmony in the councils of the 
nation, and the retiring of the Secretary of the Treasury is a sure indication that 
the bottom is about to fall out. Therefore, to save the country from this back- 
set, if you will give me time, I think Ohio can close the breach and the world be 
none the wiser." 

Mr. L. "You doctored the business up once, but on the whole, Brough, I 
reckon you had better let it alone this time." 

The conversational form is followed as preserved in the diary of the writer, 
July 12, 1864. MS. 

' Letter to the Hon. Aaron F. Perry. Warden, p. 596. 



The Resignation of Chase 185 

under an investigation which the Secretary demanded. Mr. 
Chase believed this assault, made by the Blairs to impair the 
public confidence, to be endorsed by the President.* The 
latter repelled the imputation, and Mr. Chase was apparently 
satisfied with the explanation. But the two had come to the 
parting of the roads. The attitude of the faction of radical 
Republicans towards the administration rendered the with- 
drawal of the Secretary of the Treasury the only honorable 
solution. 

Furthermore, Mr. Chase distrusted the tendencies of the 
Republican party. Jeffersonian political theories were em- 
braced by him in early life, and he separated from the Demo- 
cratic party only on account of slavery. If that great moral 
wrong were eliminated, what then? "If the Democrats would 
only cut loose from slavery and go for freedom and the pro- 
tection of labor by a national currency, I would cheerfully go 
for any man they might nominate." " 

The secret society now known as "The Order of American 
Knights," took advantage of the opportunity thus opened and 
formed the bold design of offering armed opposition in the 
States bordering on the Ohio. The numbers engaged in this 
treasonable work have already been noted, and the means 
which the State executives had for keeping watch of their 
movement. The i6th of August was the day fixed for 
the uprising and the seizure of the military camps and the re- 
lease of rebel prisoners. Before that day arrived, the increase 
in the forces guarding these was notice that the plot was 
known. The members of the society did not desist in their 
purpose to resist the draft which had been ordered to meet 
the President's call. Governor Brough anticipated this by 
issuing a proclamation of warning. 

What can you who contemplate armed resistance [asked the Gov- 
ernor] reasonably expect to gain by such resistance ? You may 
commit crime; you may shed blood; you may destroy property; 

' Chase to Brough. Warden, p. 593. 

'Record in Chase's diary, July 6, 1864. Ibid., p. 627. 



1 86 A Political History of Slavery 

you may spread ruin and devastation over some localities of the 
State; you may give aid and comfort for a season to the rebels 
already in arms against the country; you may transfer, for a brief 
time, the horrors of war from the fields of the South to those of the 
State of Ohio ; you may paralyze prosperity, and create consternation 
and alarm among our people. This is a bare possibility, but it is 
all you can hope to accomplish; for you have looked upon the pro- 
gress of our present struggle to little purpose if you have not learned 
the great recuperative power, and the deep earnestness of the 
country in this contest. The final result will not be doubtful; 
the disaster to you will be complete, and the penalty will equal 
the enormity of the crime. 

In midsummer a movement to bring about the withdravi^al 
of Mr. Lincoln and the nomination of a new man was taking 
shape. Governor Andrew, Mr. Greeley, Mr. Bryant and many 
other men prominent in the anti-slavery contest were in cor- 
respondence over the crisis which the widespread dissatisfaction 
had created.' The criticisms which found their way into the 
columns of the New York Tribune^ the Evening Post, the Cin- 
cinnati Gazette and other journals of high standing and in- 
fluence represented the opinions of a large class of thoughtful, 
sincere and patriotic men. They believed the party of the 
Union could be saved from defeat only by a change of candi- 
date. A conference, held at the residence of David Dudley 
Field in New York, August 14th, was attended by Mr. 
Greeley, Parke Godwin, "William Curtis Noyes, Henry Winter 
Davis, Dr. Francis Lieber and a score of other well-known 
citizens. "It was agreed that a committee should request 
Mr. Lincoln to withdraw, and Grant was the name which 
found most favor as a substitute." ' Mr. Sumner thought a 
change of candidate desirable, but only with Mr. Lincoln's 
free and voluntary withdrawal, and this was the position of 
Senator Collamer and John Jay." 

' The New York Sun, June 30, 1889, printed a large number of letters written 
to John Austen Stevens, in 1864, by distinguished citizens who believed it im- 
possible to elect Mr. Lincoln. 

2 Pierce's Sumner, vol. iv., p. 197. ^ Ibid., p. 197. 



Movement for Lincoln's Withdrawal 187 

Dr. Lieber observed that there was nothing necessarily 
against Mr. Lincoln in this movement ; 

but individuals wear out quickly in revolutionary times, were it for 
no other reason than that familiarity with a name takes from it the 
enthusiasm. Even Napoleon would not have been able to mount 
and bridle the steed of revolution, had he come in at first. The 
fact, is, that there is no spark of that enthusiasm or inspiriting 
motive power, call it what you may, for Mr. Lincoln, without which 
you cannot move so comprehensive an election as that of a Presi- 
dent. We must have a new man against a new man, and we cannot 
have him without Mr. Lincoln's withdrawal. Oh, that an angel 
could descend and show him what a beautiful stamp on his name in 
history such a withdrawal would be! ' 

During this same month of August, Thomas Corwin, 
while on a visit to Governor Brough, repeated a remark made 
by Mr. Lincoln, that without military victories he might be 
beaten.' The Governor did not concur in this opinion. He 
believed that without any change of conditions Mr. Lincoln 

' Life and Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 350. 

* " Nor was Mr. Lincoln alone in his apprehension of defeat. Distrust and disin- 
tegration were common throughout the entire Republican organization, and nearly all 
the sincere supporters of Lincoln were in next to utter despair of political success. 
I spent an hour with him in the executive chamber some ten days before he wrote 
the memorandum [of August 23d, which expressed doubt of his re-election] and I 
never saw him more dejected in my life. His face, always sad in repose, was then 
saddened until it became a picture of despair, and he spoke of the want of sincere 
and earnest support from the Republican leaders with unusual freedom." — 
Reminiscences of Col. Alex. K. McClure. 

The following letter, which is here made public for the first time, very clearly 
expressess the feeling of despondency then prevalent among earnest Union men 
in the Northern States : 

" Office of the Cincinnati Gazette, 

" Aug. 14, 1864. 
"Joseph H. Barrett, Esq^ 

" My dear Sir, — On my return from a short summer vacation, I found your 
two last letters on my table. You folks at Washington seem to be blind as to the 
condition of affairs throughout the country. 

" Everywhere Mr. Lincoln is dead. I did not meet, nor do I know in the 
whole circle of my acquaintance, half a dozen Lincoln men. He is a heavy 
weight to carry, and unless the Chicago convention blunders, we shall lose the 



i88 A Political History of Slavery 

would be re-elected — that only a series of disasters in the field 
could defeat him. He had early been impressed with the 
peculiarity of this contest : that while there was an earnest 
desire to terminate the war, there was an equally earnest pur- 
pose to terminate it rightfully. Intercourse with the people 
during the present canvass confirmed this opinion. While 
there was wanting the enthusiasm usual in great political con- 
tests, the people were seriously in earnest and they would, 
indeed could, only vote the Union ticket. Furthermore, the 
tide would change when the national Democratic convention 
put a candidate in the field. It was morally certain that the 
convention would be dominated by the peace faction of the 
party. The delegates could not stultify the record by resolv- 

election of President and also, I apprehend, the election of Congressmen to such 
an extent as to give the next House to the opposition. 

" In the event of the nomination at Chicago of a peace Democrat, the people 
may be rallied for the cause, and the division on the Democratic side may give us 
success ; but with a dead man for a candidate the prospect is gloomy enough. 

"Some articles appeared in the Gazette during my absence of which I disap- 
proved, and on my return I had it distinctly understood that thereafter unfavor- 
able criticisms were to be avoided, and the best fight possible should be made for the 
cause. Throughout the canvass that is now going on, you will observe that Mr. Lin- 
coln is ignored. Nowhere is his name received with the least enthusiasm ; therefore 
speakers mention him as rarely as possible, and dodge the candidate while they 
assail the principles of the opposition. This must be the line of policy; any other 
would give our enemies the advantage. Had the Baltimore Convention been 
postponed, as we advocated, we should now be in a more hopeful condition. 
To-day Lincoln could not be nominated, but in his stead we should have a live 
man — not Chase, for he would be no better — but some other man — Dix for exam- 
ple. As it is, the best plan would be to withdraw Lincoln, but I do not hope for 
that. So anxious is he for the place that I fear he would sacrifice everything 
rather than step aside. He is deluded with the idea that he is personally popular, 
when the reverse is the fact, and his admirers, I apprehend, keep up the delusion. 
If he could now take a trip through the country he would return a wiser man. 

"I hope something may turn up to clear away the gloom which surrounds us. 
With what I see around me, and feel, I am in no condition for a vigorous fight, 
and I would gladly quit the business if I could. But the cause is everything, and 
I shall try to work for that. 

" The Wade-Davis protest is doing much mischief. ' To whom it may concern,' 
also. For God's sake let us have no more proclamations. . . . 

" Truly yours, 

" Richard Smith." 



The Nomination of McClellan 189 

Ing to prosecute the war, and to recognize the freedom of the 
quarter of a million of human chattels already emancipated 
by the military power. If it should be proposed to return to 
slavery men of whom many were soldiers fighting bravely for 
the Union, this shameless breach of faith and inhumanity 
would rally the radicals to Mr. Lincoln's support and bring 
upon the heads of the authors of the proposition the ven- 
geance of Heaven.' Thus reasoned one who possessed un- 
usual political sagacity. The apathy of the people, due in 
part to exhaustion, disappeared when the opposition party 
publicly declared the war a failure. 

The assembling of the Democratic National Convention in 
Chicago had been postponed until the 29th day of August to 
give ample time for consultation before a committal should be 
made. The conditions favored the peace men and their 
prominence fixed the character of the convention. Governor 
Seymour was made permanent president. Clement L. Val- 
landigham was the ruling spirit of the Committee on Resolu- 
tions. Associated with him there were no men of ability 
except Samuel J. Tilden and Mr. Guthrie. There seems to 
have been unanimity in reporting the platform, the second 
resolution only of which is of historical importance, as show- 
ing that the fatuous course adopted by a faction of the Demo- 
cratic party in the beginning of the sectional controversy was 
to be continued to the end. It reads as follows : 

Resolved^ That this convention does explicitly declare, as the 
sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to 
restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under 
the pretense of military necessity, or war power higher than the 
Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every 
part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and 
the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, 
humanity, liberty and the public welfare demand that immediate 

' Memorandum of the writer. MS. Compare with letter of Brough to Chase, 
Ohio in the War. The writer, who was a candidate on the State ticket, found the 
Governor's observation as to the resolute purpose of the people confirmed. Mr. 
Corwin was greatly encouraged by his talk with Governor Brough. 



190 A Political History of Slavery 

efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an 
ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable means, to the 
end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace may be restored 
on the basis of the federal Union of the States. 

General George B. McClellan was nominated for President 
on the first ballot. Having secured a peace platform, Mr. 
Vallandigham moved to make the vote unanimous. George 
H. Pendleton, the ablest representative of the peace party 
prominently before the public, was unanimously nominated 
for Vice-President on the second ballot, all other names being 
withdrawn. On the first ballot James Guthrie of Kentucky, 
who had been in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war, 
received sixty-five and one-half votes. In his letter of accept- 
ance, General McClellan endeavored to stem the rising tide of 
public condemnation by qualifying the most offensive clauses 
of the platform. Where the convention had demanded "a 
cessation of hostilities with a view to an ultimate convention 
of the States," he expressed the opinion that "so soon as it 
is clear, or even probable, that our present adversaries are 
ready for peace upon the. basis of the Union, we should exhaust 
all the resources of statesmanship . . . consistent with the 
honor and interests of the country, to secure such peace." He 
could not endorse the declaration that the war had proved a 
failure, and look his gallant comrades of the army and navy in 
the face — to tell them "that we had abandoned that Union for 
which we have so often perilled our lives." It all would not 
do. Some votes were saved by this, but the platform and 
the record of the Vice-President, both meaning a surrender 
to the secessionists, proved too heavy a load for a Union 
general. 

In the view of a class of theorists with whom Mr. Pendleton 
was associated in 1861, the Constitution stood in the way of 
the government making effective resistance to the insurgents; 
and in 1863, State sovereignty made it impossible to abolish 
slavery by a constitutional amendment. This state of im- 
potency found its counterpart in the declaration of a hyper- 



The Nomination of McClellan 191 

Calvinist, that God could not save the predestined lost ones, 
even if he would.' 

The revolutionary spirit of the convention was further dis- 
played in the unusual proceeding of not adjourning sine die. 
In offering a resolution that the convention should remain or- 
ganized subject to be called at any time and place by the ex- 
ecutive committee, Mr. Wickliffe of Kentucky remarked, that 
the Western delegates "were of the opinion that circumstances 
may occur between noon of to-day and the 4th of March next, 
which will make it proper for the Democracy of the country 
to meet in convention again." That this had a twofold pur- 
pose is obvious. One of the declarations made by the oppo- 
sition to inflame the passions of the people was, that the 
administration, having broken down every constitutional safe- 
guard, would employ the army to continue its hold on power 
if outvoted at the polls. Language used by Secretary Sew- 
ard in a speech at Auburn, on the 5th of September, was 
cited in confirmation of this purpose. Mr. Seward, in refer- 
ring to the demand of the Chicago convention for a cessation 
of hostilities, commented on the paralyzing effect on the suc- 
cess at the polls of the Democratic party, and asked, "Who 
could vouch for the safety of the country against the rebels 
during the interval which must elapse before the new adminis- 
tration can constitutionally come into power? " Quick to de- 
tect the influence of the misrepresentations which followed the 
publication of Mr. Seward's speech, Mr. Lincoln improved the 
opportunity offered by a serenade to allude to them. 

Others regard the fact that the Chicago convention adjourned to 
meet again, if called to do so by a particular individual, as the 
intimation of a purpose that if their nominee shall be elected he 
vi^ill at once seize control of the government. I hope the good 
people will permit themselves to suffer no uneasiness on either point. 
I am struggling to maintain the government, not to overthrow it. 
I am struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it. I 
therefore say that if I live I shall remain President until the 4th of 

' Related by Dr. Lieber, in whose liearing the remark was made. Life, p. 348. 



192 A Political History of Slavery 

next March, and that whoever shall be constitutionally elected in 
November shall be duly installed as President on the 4th of March, 
and in the interval I shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the 
helm for the next voyage shall start with the best possible chance 
of saving the ship. 

There was no mistaking this language — no chance for an ad- 
versary to cavil. The anti-war committal of the Democratic 
party secured the withdrawal of General Fremont. The peo- 
ple were left the choice of voting to sustain the government 
and the army and navy in overcoming rebellion by force, or 
of voting for a cessation of hostilities and the surrender of all 
that had been accomplished, leaving the future destiny of the 
country suspended in mid air. There is scarcely a doubt of 
what their decision would have been even without the incite- 
ment of victories won in battle, and indignation aroused by 
outrages threatened or committed near at home. The activity 
of the opposition was never greater. In Ohio the State was 
flooded with petitions in the following form : 

A PRAYER FOR PEACE 

On the Basis of the Integrity of the Union! 

To the President of the United States: We, the women of Ohio, the 
mothers, wives, daughters and sisters of the soldiers in the field, or 
who slumber in patriot graves, petition to the President to grant us 
peace. 

We love the Union of the States, but above all we love that sacred 
and holy union composed of our fathers, husbands, sons and 
brothers. Many of our homes are desolate — all are obscured in 
gloom, and our habiliments of woe are stained with fraternal, with 
conjugal and with filial blood. Oh, then, let our prayer be heard, 
and do not doom to death the remaining loved ones whose presence 
saves us from despair! With prayers for our country and peace, we 
trustingly subscribe our names. 

It was during this period that the secret organizations in 
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois before referred to became most 
desperate in planning for the release of prisoners of war, for 



The Re-Election of Lincoln 193 

armed resistance to the government, and for terrifying and 
harassing the people. 

While the brilliant victory of the navy under Admiral Far- 
ragut in Mobile Bay and the taking of Atlanta filled the loyal 
people with joy, there was no abatement of care and vigilance 
in the conduct of the political canvass on behalf of the Union 
party. Factional differences were accommodated and unity 
of effort secured. The President requested and received the 
resignation of Postmaster-General Blair, which was a conces- 
sion to the friends of Mr. Chase. But the brilliant victories 
of Sheridan's army in the Shenandoah valley — the battles of 
Opequan and Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek — sealed the fate 
of the peace party at the polls, and, for reasons beyond his 
control, rendered it impracticable for General Early to assist 
in the counting of the ballots in Pennsylvania, as the Richmond 
newspapers had rashly promised. 

First Vermont and Maine in September declared for the 
government with unmistakable emphasis. Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Indiana and Iowa followed in October, with such sweep- 
ing majorities as made certain the verdict of November.' 
There was great rejoicing over the re-election of Governor 
Morton in Indiana, and the defeat in New York of Governor 
Seymour by Reuben E. Fenton.^ In both States the people 
condemned the leaders of the Democratic party who had in 
time of war made their support of the government condi- 
tional. Conditional loyalty is incipient treason. 

> Ohio was one of the States afflicted with secret semi-treasonable organizations, 
and, like Indiana, was considered debatable ground. The Union majority for 
William Henry Smith, for Secretary of State, was 54,751. Rutherford B. Hayes 
carried the Second Congressional district, which had been disgraced by Alex. 
Long, by a majority of 3098. Samuel Shellabarger defeated S. S. Cox by a major- 
ity of 3169. John A. Bingham was elected in his old district, and General 
Schenck was re-elected in the Dayton district. 

Oliver P. Morton was elected Governor of Indiana over Joseph E. McDonald 
by the decisive majority of 20,883. McDonald, who was in favor of the prosecu- 
tion of the war, was hampered by the record of his party. 

'The majority for Governor Fenton was 8293, which was over 1500 greater 
than Mr. Lincoln's majority. In Indiana Governor Morton also proved stronger 
than Mr. Lincoln by several hundred votes. The majority for Governor Carpo 

VOL. II. — 13. 



194 A Political History of Slavery 

It was Sheridan's campaign in the Shenandoah valley in the 
autumn of 1864 and his rout of General Early that made 
certain the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. Great was the 
rejoicing throughout the North. Sheridan was the hero of 
the hour, and deservedly so. 

What effect had this rush of events upon the South, so un- 
happily involved in rebellion? There were evidences of a 
growing desire on the part of the people that the war should 
be brought to a close and relations re-established with the 
other States. Absenteeism from the army was an alarming 
evil. The army was reduced by desertions. The soldiers still 
in the ranks had lost the zeal they had formerly possessed. 
The reports of the general ofificers for the latter part of 1864 
show how difficult it was to keep the men at their work, and 
at what sacrifice of life on the part of the ofificers. The cour- 
age of Mr. Davis seemed to rise as the situation of the insur- 
gent States became more desperate. He did the only thing 
possible, short of surrender, after the first successes in the val- 
ley of the Shenandoah and when Sherman had his grip on 
Atlanta, and that was to appeal to the people — to their pride 
— which he hoped would secure the return to the armies of 
the absentees. If this were done promptly and thoroughly, 
what might not Lee accomplish in his impregnable position by 
prolonging the war until Grant's army should melt away? 
What might not the brave and indefatigable Hood accomplish 
by destroying Sherman's connections with his base, and by 
invading the States of the Ohio valley? The Northern States 
should taste the bitterness of invasion, the loss of property, 
homes burned, cities destroyed. His agents in Canada were 
active on the border, and had already shown what they could 

in Michigan was 17,063 ; for Mr. Lincoln 16,917. It was a source of gratification 
to the country that the old slave States of Maryland and Missouri — slave States no 
longer — and West Virginia gave handsome majorities for the author of the eman- 
cipation proclamation. In i860 Mr. Lincoln's vote was 39.87 per cent, of the 
entire popular vote; in 1864 (the seceded States excluded) it was 55.10 per 
cent. The electoral votes of Delaware, New Jersey and Kentucky, an aggregate 
of 21 votes, were cast for McClellan. The votes of the other States (excluding 
Tennessee), aggregating 213 votes, were cast for Lincoln. 



Change in Southern Sentiment 195 

do at St. Albans, Vermont, These forays could be mul- 
tiplied. 

The accepted organs of public opinion had already responded 
to the proposals of the Northern peace party. They declared 
that whenever a treaty of peace should be made it must be 
done wholly on the basis of the entire independence and sov- 
ereignty of each particular State. They declared that the 
confederate government had no right to make any peace in 
which one inch of land belonging to one of the States should 
be given up, or one iota of its privileges as a sovereign be sur- 
rendered.' There was notice in this to a growing opposition 
party, for it was whispered that there were men willing to come 
to terms with the United States on the basis of the Union.' 
Those who were of the opposition and wished to overthrow the 
confederate president did not speak of Union as a basis of 
peace,' though that may have been their ulterior purpose. 
The discontented in North Carolina were bolder. They de- 
manded peace. Governor Vance assured Mr. Davis that the 
feeling could be quieted only by showing a willingness to ne- 
gotiate. Mr. Davis hinted that the arrest of Holden, the 
leader, might do it. 

Late in September Mr. Davis started on a trip to South 
Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. At Macon he told the citi- 
zens that the cause was not lost ; that Sherman could not 
keep up his long line of communications and must retreat. 
"Sooner or later he must, and when that day comes the fate 
that befell the army of the French Emperor in its retreat from 
Moscow will be re-enacted." But Sherman's plan was not 
comprehended in the West Point education of Jefferson 
Davis, or dreamed of in his experience in the Mexican war. 



' Richmond Despatch, August 31st. 

'The Charleston Mercury said : "Now it is well for our Yankee foes, as well 
as our government at Richmond to understand, that the constitution of the Con- 
federate States confers no power whatever on their agency at Richmond to put 
any of them into a convention with any foreign state whatever." 

^Ex-Justice J. A. Campbell to Justice Curtis. The Century Magazine, Oct., 
1889. 



196 A Political History of Slavery 

It was to cut loose from his connections and to live upon the 
supplies that the country afforded. 

At Montgomery he said that there was but one duty for 
free Southern men. It was to go to the front. He surveyed 
the history of the first three years of the Confederacy to show 
what a great work had been accomplished, and concluded his 
r^siim^ with an expression of satisfaction that the great staple 
of the South had been superseded by grain and produce for 
the support of the armies in the field. He was aware of the 
peace sentiment in Alabama, and therefore took notice of it. 
He spoke eloquently of the horrors of war and the sufferings 
of the people. He desired peace. He had tried to obtain it 
and had been rudely repulsed. He should still strive, and by 
the blessing of God and the strong arms of the soldiers he yet 
hoped to obtain it. If there were those who hoped to outwit 
the Yankees, and by smooth words and fair speeches — by the 
appearance of a willingness to treat for reunion — to effect the 
election of a certain candidate in the North, they were deceiv- 
ing themselves. Victory in the field was the surest element of 
strength to a peace party. "Let us win battles, and we shall 
have overtures soon enough. Is there a man in the South who 
is in favor of reconstruction? Reunion means subjugation. 
All I have to say is that the man who is in favor of this deg- 
radation is on the wrong side of the line of battle." ' 

There were many people in favor of reunion, but they 
wanted it on the basis of the paramount sovereignty of the 
States. Governor Brown of Georgia, who was not in accord 
with the Richmond government and who had withdrawn the 
militia of that State from the army of Hood and permitted 
them to disperse to their homes, yet held to that theory of 
Calhoun. His attitude towards the confederate government, 
which the Northern press zealously applauded, was carrying to 
its logical conclusion the basic proposition of the Southern 
contention. When General Sherman, through Mr. King and 
Mr. Wright, prominent citizens of Georgia, invited Governor 
Brown to a conference to see if some way could not be found 

' Montgomery Mail. 



Conscription of Slaves Proposed 197 

for Georgia to return to the Union, the Governor affirmed the 
sovereignty of the State, but very properly replied that the 
faith of the State was pledged by implication to her Southern 
sisters, that she would not exercise that power without their 
consent.' There were those who thought further resistance on 
the part of the South was madness, and who hoped that Gov- 
ernor Brown would take steps to withdraw the State from the 
rebellion, in pursuance of the policy of "separate State 
action," ^ originally proclaimed by the secessionists. Yet the 
Governor held that the question of future alliance should be 
determined by the States in their sovereign capacity. This 
declaration left the Confederacy suspended in mid air. It had 
been taking such strides toward a centralized government that 
a new association might be the object of early action. It was 
largely in debt to Georgia and would not or could not liquidate 
it. The confederate government prohibited the citizens of 
Georgia from selling supplies, produced by their own labor and 
means, to other States willing to pay for them. This made it 
difficult to provide the militia and the indigent poor Avith the 
necessaries of life. Their officers had been driven out of the 
home market and compelled to go to Alabama to obtain a 
supply of corn.^ The discontent was widespread, and doubt- 
less accounts for the fact that the passionate appeals of leaders 
to the people to rise and destroy the invading army fell un- 
heeded. Sherman's march was so little impeded as to give it 
the character of a triumphal progress. Slavery perished in the 
presence of his army, rendering a legislative act of emancipa- 
tion to define the status of the negroes accompanying or 
following him supererogatory. 

As the confederate armies were depleted, the Richmond 
government largely disregarded the rule regulating exemptions 
and made virtually the whole population subject to military 



' The correspondence was published at the time in the Confederate Union of 
Milledgeville. Reprinted by the Cincinnati C^wwfrc/a/, October nth. Compare 
Stephens, vol. ii. 

' Sherman, vol. ii., p. 138. 

' Message of Governor Brown to the Georgia Legislature, November, 1864. 



198 A Political History of Slavery 

duty. There sprang up about this time a discussion over a 
proposition made by the Richmond Enquirer to conscript the 
slaves for the purpose of making soldiers of them. It was sug- 
gested as a resource to which dire necessity might drive the 
government. Two considerations were involved in it. There 
was the moral influence which the conscription of a quarter of 
million slaves to fight for their own freedom and the indepen- 
dence of their masters would have upon the North and the 
world at large. And there was the physical influence of such 
an augmentation of the fighting force upon the army, the 
people, the cause and the enemy.' Naturally such a radical 
measure created great excitement, and invited heated opposi- 
tion. If there were masters who would prefer to offer up half 
or two-thirds of their slaves upon the altar of their country 
rather than that the law exempting them from military service 
should be repealed, there were others who resisted such an in- 

' Richmond Enquirer, Nov. nth. The proposition first appeared in the En- 
quirer, Oct. i8th. It originated with Major-General Cleburne, the most popular 
division commander in Johnston's army. While at Dalton, early in January, 
1864, General Cleburne prepared a memorial to the Confederate Congress pray- 
ing that it would emancipate the slaves and enroll the young and able-bodied in. 
the army. He urged that such a course would relieve the Southern people of a 
yearly tax, an unproductive consumption, because the slave consumed more than 
his profits, thus distinguishing the profit of the negro from the profit of cotton ; it 
would animate the undying gratitude of that race ; it would create in the negro 
a greater self-respect and ambition ; with gratitude and ambition the service of 
the soldier would be both reliable and valuable ; the moral effect throughout the 
world, but especially in Europe, would be generally strengthening and beneficial 
to the South ; the result would be the signal for immediate European recognition, 
and, indeed, action. Germany and Italy would have been disarmed of their 
prejudice. Napoleon would have instantly been encouraged to become a La Fay- 
ette, and Great Britain would not have been afraid to back him in Parliamentary 
declaration, no matter how the working classes would have felt ; it would raise 
the blockade and give the South provisions and clothing. 

The memorial was read in a meeting of the general officers of Johnston's army 
by General Hardee, and received with violent opposition. Great care was taken 
to prevent any knowledge of this from getting to the rank and file. General 
Cleburne was ostracized by many of his fellow officers. Mr. Davis and his Secre- 
tary of War were glad that General Johnston and others did not give the scheme 
their countenance. Many interesting papers bearing on this incident have been 
discovered by General Henry V. Boynton and printed in the Cincinnati Covitner- 
cial Gazette. 



Conscription of Slaves Proposed 199 

vasion of property rights. There were others again who held 
that there was a great principle of morality involved in forcing 
the negro to risk his life for the freedom of his master! There 
were others again who objected to this levelling measure — the 
destruction of class distinctions placing the negro on an 
equality with the white man ! Was it for this they would 
seek the aid of the slaves? To establish in the midst of the 
white population a quarter of a million of black freemen 
familiar with the art and discipline of war, and with large mili- 
tary experience? " Virginius " asked, What then would be the 
condition of their wives, children and parents?' "Will the 
freeman fight to conquer for us when if successful he makes 
more secure the bonds of those he loves at home? " Ah, in- 
deed! It were time to pause. 

Mr. Davis in his annual message took notice of the proposi- 
tion. He did not approve of the policy of making a general 
levy and arming the slaves for the duty of soldiers. Should 
the alternative ever be presented of subjugation or of the em- 
ployment of the slave as a soldier, there was no doubt of what 
the decision would be. Meanwhile he recommended the em- 
ployment and disciplining of forty thousand negroes for sub- 
ordinate military service. Viewed merely as property, the 
slave was the subject of impressment. But he held another 
relation to the State, that of a person. Employed as a person 
in the military service, intelligence, loyalty and zeal were de- 
manded. It seemed proper, therefore, for the government to 
acquire the ownership of the persons thus to be employed. 
Emancipation should be held out as a reward for faithful 
service, as being preferable to immediate manumission. The 
permission of the State, from which he was drawn, to reside 
within its limits after the close of his public service, would 
need to be obtained. 

The Richmond Whig'' was merciless in exposing the incon- 
sistency of Mr. Davis's recommendation in view of all that 
he and others of his school had urged in behalf of slavery. The 

' Communication to iS'wi'MjVt'r, Nov. nth. 
** November 9th. 



200 A Political History of Slavery 

first proposition deducible from his message was, that the con- 
dition of freedom was so much better than that of servitude 
that it might be bestowed as a reward. This was a repudia- 
tion of the opinion held by the whole South, that servitude 
was the divinely appointed condition for the highest good of 
slaves, and was that condition in which negroes might attain 
the highest moral and intellectual advancement of which they 
were capable, and might enjoy most largely of such comforts 
and blessings of life as were suited to them. This being the 
attitude of the South in the moral controversy with the Abo- 
litionists — this being the belief of the South, the proposition 
cruelly deprived the slave of the care and guardianship of the 
master. "If the slave must fight," added the Whig, "he 
should fight for the blessings he enjoys as a slave and not for 
the miseries that attend him if freed." This conclusion was 
logically and morally justified by the attitude the South had 
assumed before the world. 

The second proposition deducible from the message was still 
more startling, as it was a concession that the confederate 
government had the power and right to exterminate slavery by 
the simple process of impressing or purchasing all slaves, and 
then emancipating them. Mr. Lincoln had never gone so far 
as that, for in his plan of compensated emancipation he ex- 
pressly referred the question to the States, acknowledging that 
they only could determine it. "We give up the whole ques- 
tion," said the Z^r^/'^/^//,' " when weadopt this measure." But 
the question would not down. It brought Lee and other gen- 
erals within the influence of the controversy. It sharply 
divided the public men and consumed the time of the legisla- 
ture. When, finally, the measure received legal sanction it 
was too late to stay the power of the Union army. 

Another source of disquiet to Mr. Davis was the failure of 
foreign governments to recognize the independence of the 
Confederacy. The disregard of this just, humane, and Chris- 
tian public duty by the nations of Europe was the more re- 
markable, he said, from the fact that authentic expression had 

' November 13th. 



North Confident and Prosperous 201 

early been given by the governments of France and England 
to the conviction that the United States were unable to con- 
quer the Confederacy. When the history of this war shall be 
fully disclosed, added Mr. Davis, "the calm judgment of the 
impartial publicist will be unable to absolve the neutral nations 
of Europe from a share in the moral responsibility for the 
myriads of human lives that have been unnecessarily sacrificed 
during its progress." This is undoubtedly true, but for 
reasons very different from those given by Mr, Davis. A 
criticism one meets with in the published recollections of some 
of Mr. Davis's associates is that Mr. Davis founded his hope 
of ultimate success almost entirely upon the expectation that 
England and France would recognize the Confederacy. He 
adhered tenaciously to this and spent the lives and substance 
of the people to justify it. 

If constantly lessening resources, lessening confidence of 
foreign governments in the ability of the Confederacy to win 
independence, the depletion of regiments by disastrous battles 
and desertions, and divided counsels, filled with gloom the 
homes of the South, the North presented a far different scene. 
Here confidence had taken the place of despondency. The 
busy hum of workshops and manufactories had a note of joy 
in its music once more. The draft no longer had any terrors. 
Regiments were quickly filled to their maximum. Communi- 
ties never seemed more prosperous. Far to the westward new 
homes were being created, thus adding to the strength and 
wealth of the United States. President Lincoln remarked 
with satisfaction in his annual message of the 6th of Decem- 
ber, that in the year and a quarter ending September 30th 
i» 538,614 acres of land were entered under the homestead law, 
and that the recepits from sales during the fiscal year were about 
four times greater than during the previous year. The more 
adventurous had turned their quest to the Sierra Nevada and 
Rocky Mountains, and numerous gold, silver and cinnabar 
mines had been added to the many already in operation. It 
was estimated that the product of the mines in that region 
during the year equalled $100,000,000 in value. The work of 



202 A Political History of Slavery 

connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific by railways and tele- 
graph lines had been entered upon with a vigor that gave as- 
surance of success. An association of American citizens had 
undertaken to construct a telegraph line between America and 
Europe by the way of Bering Strait and Asiatic Russia. 
The enterprise was being conducted with the cordial good- 
will of Great Britain and Russia, while several of the South 
American States had sent assurances of their appreciation, 
and their readiness to cooperate in constructing lines trib- 
utary to that world-encircling communication. Meantime 
an early completion of the submarine telegraph cable line 
between the coasts of America and Great Britain was prom- 
ised. Thus it was hoped that with the return of domestic 
peace the country would be able to resume with energy 
and advantage her former high career of commerce and 
civilization. 

The end of the war was believed to be near. There seemed 
to be absolutely no hope for success on the part of the insur- 
gent States. Even if a levy en masse of the seven hundred 
thousand slaves capable of rendering military service were 
made, where would be obtained the arms and munitions to 
equip them? The supply was being rapidly exhausted, and 
soon it would be difficult to obtain iron to cast balls for the 
use of the artillery. Could supplies be procured from abroad? 
The navy and army of the United States cooperating were 
about to close the only avenue connecting the Confederate 
States with the outer world, by which blockade runners 
reached Wilmington. Mobile was already lost to them, and 
Mr. Lincoln, by opening the ports of Norfolk, Fernandina 
and Pensacola to commerce again, invited foreign merchants 
to abandon a contraband trade which was daily becoming more 
and more hazardous. Desperate as these conditions were in 
themselves, there was no money resource available for their 
improvement. The currency afloat was the most striking 
evidence of the hopelessness of the cause. All this was under- 
stood by the able men who directed the affairs of the Confed- 
erate States, and yet not one of them had the moral courage 



Lincoln's Conciliatory Spirit 203 

to deal with the situation in a statesmanHke manner to stay 
the further sacrifice of life. 

Mr. Lincoln kept a way open for them. All of his utter- 
ances after his re-election were conciliatory. His spirit was 
that of one who communed with the Most High. He pro- 
nounced no harsh judgments. He devised no methods of 
punishment for individuals; he would save all, if possible, from 
humiliation even. In his message he appealed to the judg- 
ment of the insurgents. He showed by indisputable statistics 
that there were more men in the loyal States than when the 
war began ; and that the national resources were more abun- 
dant than ever, and were believed to be inexhaustible. If 
their leader would not re-accept the Union they could. He 
added : 

They can at any moment have peace simply by laying down 
their arms and submitting to the national authority under the Con- 
stitution. After so much the government could not, if it would, 
maintain war against them. The loyal people would not sustain 
or allow it. If questions should remain we would adjust them by 
the peaceful means of legislation, conference, courts and votes, 
operating only in constitutional and lawful channels. Some certain 
and other possible questions are and would be beyond the executive 
power to adjust; as, for instance, the admission of members into 
Congress, and whatever might require the appropriation of money. 
The executive power itself would be greatly diminished by the 
cessation of actual war; pardons and remissions of forfeitures, how- 
ever, would still be within executive control. In what spirit and 
temper this control would be exercised can be fairly judged of by 
the past. 

A year ago general pardon and amnesty, upon specified terms, 
were offered to all except certain designated classes, and it was at 
the same time made known that the excepted classes were still 
within contemplation of special clemency. During the year many 
availed themselves of the general provision, and many more would, 
only that the signs of bad faith in some led to such precautionary 
measures as rendered the practical process less easy and certain. 
During the same time, also, special pardons have been granted to 
individuals of the excepted classes and no voluntary application 



204 A Political History of Slavery 

has been denied. Thus practically the door has been for a full 
year open to all except such as were not in condition to make free 
choice; that is, such as were in custody or under restraint. It is 
still so open to all. But the time may come, probably will come, 
when public duty shall demand that it be closed and that in lieu 
/ more rigorous measures than heretofore shall be adopted. 

But the President did not fail in his duty to the poor who 
had been in bonds. He announced his inflexible adherence to 
the policy of emancipation, which was the true policy of peace, 
containing within itself the power to set free those who were 
in bonds to the prejudices of centuries as well as those who 
"owed service and labor" under the law of force. He con- 
tinued: 

In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national 
authority on the part of the insurgents as the only indispensable 
condition to ending the war on the part of the government, I 
retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declara- 
tion made a year ago, that " while I remain in my present position I 
shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclama- 
tion, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the 
terms of that proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress." If 
the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it my execu- 
tive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their 
instrument to perform it. In stating a single condition of peace I 
mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the gov- 
ernment whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who 
began it. 

Mr. Lincoln made no allusion to the vexed subject of recon- 
struction. He saw the unwisdom of continuing a controversy 
so full of peril to the common cause. In a speech he made at 
a late hour on the night of the election he said in all sincerity : 

I am thankful to God for this approval of the people. But, 
while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I 
know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal 
triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. 
It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one, but I give thanks 



Lincoln's Conciliatory Spirit 205 

to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand 
by free government and the rights of humanity. 

On another occasion he remarked that he had not willingly 
planted a thorn in any man's bosom. In this spirit he moved 
forward, the best type of man, as one whose soul is weighted 
with the suffering, the grief and the weakness of humanity, 
Christlike. 

Great events were crowded into the month of December, the 
greatest of which was the complete overthrow of Hood's army 
by Thomas in Tennessee. 

On Christmas morning also the newspapers printed, and 
their patrons read with great satisfaction, a message from 
General Sherman, dated at Savannah, December 22d, to the 
President, saying: "I beg to present to you as a Christmas 
gift the city of Savannah with one hundred and fifty heavy 
guns and plenty of ammunition, and twenty-five thousand 
bales of cotton." Which suggested to the bright journalist of 
the day thisj'eii d' esprit to enliven Mr. Davis's Christmas din- 
ner: "General Thomas's Christmas present to the 'wayward 
sisters' — A worsted Hood." 

The city of Savannah was captured on the morning of the 
2ist. General Hardee, anticipating the contemplated assault, 
destroyed his ironclads, burned the navy yard, and then 
quietly withdrew his army of fifteen thousand men by the road 
leading to Charleston. General Hazen's division of the Fif- 
teenth Corps had captured Fort McAllister, commanding the 
entrance of the Ogeechee River, on the 13th, and most of the 
obstructions to communication with the sea were removed 
when Hardee withdrew from the city. General Foster entered 
the harbor with his steamers and supplies on the 22d. The 
twenty thousand citizens were quiet and well-disposed, but 
many of them were so destitute as to require immediate relief 
from the army stores. The citizens of New York, ever gen- 
erous givers in times of suffering or disaster, sent large amounts 
of supplies to Savannah, which act of benevolence was cal- 
culated to open the door to reconciliation. At a reconstruction 



2o6 A Political History of Slavery 

meeting held in Savannah on the 28th, the Mayor presid- 
ing, Governor Brown was requested to call a State con- 
vention to repeal the secession ordinance. Resolutions in 
favor of the restoration of the Union and complimentary to 
the President were greeted with cheers. 

The season of rejoicing did not end with Christmas. The 
final passage of the constitutional amendment prohibiting 
slavery, the continued triumph of the national arms on every 
field and evidences of an early collapse of the Confederacy 
made the celebration of Washington's birthday, 1865, an oc- 
casion of remarkable significance. The capture of Fort Fisher 
on the 15th of January by the land forces commanded by 
General Terry and a ileet under Rear Admiral Porter was one 
of the greatest disasters suffered by the confederate govern- 
ment from the beginning of the war. Forts Fisher and 
Caswell guarded the entrance to the Cape Fear River and pre- 
vented the complete blockade of the port of Wilmington, 
through which communication was had with the outside world. 
Cotton was shipped abroad and sold to obtain gold to fit out 
privateers to prey upon the commerce of the United States, 
to obtain arms and other supplies necessary to the existence 
of the government at Richmond. The closing of this port shut 
out all external trade. The Twenty-third Corps was quickly 
transferred from Nashville to North Carolina and the direction 
of operations intrusted to General Schofield. With his Wes- 
tern soldiers and the troops under Terry he swept everything 
before him, and early on the 22d of February entered the city 
of Wilmington. From Newbern as a base Goldsboro' was 
attacked and taken to prepare for the coming of General Sher- 
man. A junction of the armies of Schofield, Terry and Sher- 
man was effected in and about Goldsboro' on the 22d and 23d 
of March. Sherman had moved through South Carolina with 
greater celerity than through Georgia, capturing Columbia, 
which caused the evacuation of Charleston, destroying such 
railroads as were available for the movements of the confeder- 
ates, and dissolving all the bonds of slavery. Four days later 
the President announced in a general order that at the hour 



The Hampton Roads Conference 207 

of noon, on the 14th day of April, 1865, General Robert An- 
derson would raise and plant upon the ruins of Fort Sumter, 
in Charleston harbor, the same United States flag which was 
fired upon by the insurgents under Beauregard on the 14th day 
of April, 1 861 ; and that the flag when raised would be saluted 
by one hundred guns from Fort Sumter, and by a national 
salute from every fort and rebel battery that fired upon Fort 
Sumter; and that the ceremonies, which included the delivery 
of a public address by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, would 
be under the direction of General Sherman, or, in his absence, 
under the charge of General Q, A. Gillmore. This programme 
of poetic justice fired the public imagination. 

In the closing days of 1864, Francis P. Blair, surviving heir 
to the glory of the administration of Andrew Jackson, still 
spared to his country by an inscrutable Providence, felt that 
his mission was to bring about an understanding between 
President Lincoln and President Davis, looking to a perma- 
nent peace. Armed with a pass from Mr. Lincoln he made 
his way to Richmond and was pleasantly received by the head 
of the confederate government.' When the mysterious move- 
ment of Mr. Blair became the subject of newspaper speculation 
popular disapproval was so unmistakable that it was deemed 
advisable to give to the press a despatch disclaiming on behalf 
of the President any responsibility for the self-appointed 
ambassador. Yet the New York Tribune declared that he 
was authorized to ascertain if peace was attainable, and 
the hope was expressed that his efforts would produce a 
clear understanding at the South of the grounds of difference 
of the contending parties. The Times said that no good could 

' Judge J. A. Campbell, then in Richmond, addressed a letter to Judge Nelson 
of the Supreme Court, in December, inviting an interview with him, and asking 
that Messrs. Ewing, Stanton or Curtis might come to that city, to discuss the 
issues of the war, the questions of union, slavery, confiscation, pains and penal- 
ties, etc. He hoped that through these intelligent and sober-minded men the 
embarrassments and perils of the condition could be mitigated and peace secured. 
He did not receive any reply to his letter. " In lieu of this there came Francis 
P. Blair." Letter to Judge Curtis, 20th July, 1865. The Century, Oct., 1889, 
p. 951. 



2o8 A Political History of Slavery 

come of the mission ; while the Evening Post called it a fool's 
errand,' 

The game of politics had for the elder Blair the fascination 
that the game of war had for Napoleon, or that roulette has for 
the frequenters of Monte Carlo. As an expert manager of 
men, he had the gift of persuasion, as well as that skill in mak- 
ing combinations whereby each party to the deal gets some- 
thing, which so delights the heart of your practical politician. 
None knew better how to play to win and hold the public at- 
tention, or how far it was safe to go in the advocacy of reform 
where the purpose fell short of its accomplishment. Hence 
he was an authority in the construction of party platforms be- 
fore election, and in the inner councils after victory was won. 
It is doubtful if in his long career, from the day he turned his 
back on Henry Clay to the second nomination of Mr. Lincoln, 
he ever conceived a game of politics that promised to provide 
the world with such lively entertainment as the one he invited 
Jefferson Davis to take a hand in. In former days when 
slavery agitation threatened the disintegration of parties, it 
was a favorite plan to surmount immediate danger by declar- 
ing in favor of the acquisition of foreign territory. So now 
this representative of the old school proposed to save from 
humiliation the proud people of the South and to prepare the 
way for a reunion of the sections by a vigorous assertion of the 
Monroe Doctrine under the lead of the President of the con- 
federate government. With skilful hand Mr. Blair drew a 
picture of republican States being brought under subjection 
to a monarchy through intestine hostilities, as in the case of 
Mexico; or through an appeal for succor to European poten- 
tates, as was even then proposed by some in the South. 
American republican States, whose freedom had been won by 
valor from George III., after almost a century of prosperity 
and renown, once again dependencies of a monarchy! This 
was the issue. We could bring to a close our own unhappy 
differences, slavery being abandoned, and permanently estab- 
lish popular government throughout the boundaries of 

' Comments of January loth. 



The Hampton Roads Conference 209 

America. Becoming animated by his theme Mr. Blair 
exclaimed : 

Jefferson Davis is the fortunate man who now holds the com- 
manding position to encounter this formidable scheme of conquest, 
and whose fiat can at the same time deliver his country from the 
bloody agony now covering it in mourning. He can drive Maxi- 
milian from his American throne and baffle the designs of Napoleon 
to subject our Southern people to the "Latin race." With a breath 
he can blow away all pretense for proscription, conscription, or 
confiscation in the Southern States, restore their fields to luxuriant 
cultivation, their ports to the commerce of the world, their consti- 
tutions and their rights under them as essentially a part of the 
Constitution of the United States to that strong guaranty under 
which they flourished for nearly a century not only as equals, but 
down to the hour of conflict, the prevalent power on the continent.' 

The old Viking spirit of conquest asserted itself in the 
warmth of patriotic feeling which found expression in the 
phrase — American destiny. He who expelled the Bonaparte- 
Hapsburg dynasty from our Southern f^ank would ally his 
name with those of Washington and Jackson. 

If in delivering Mexico he should model its states in form and 
principle to adapt them to our Union and add a new Southern con- 
stellation to its benignant sky v/hile rounding off our possession on 
the continent at the Isthmus, and opening the way to blending the 
waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, thus embracing our Republic in 
the arms of the ocean, he would complete the work of Jefferson who 
first set one foot of our colossal government on the Pacific by a 
stride from the Gulf of Mexico. 

The prospect was dazzling, and we are assured that Mr. Davis 
was pleased with it. It opened a way of escape. The situa- 
tion of the South was desperate. 

How to take the first step — the lives and property and gov- 
ernment of the Southern people were to be considered. It 
was suggested that amnesty could be extended to all; that 

" Quoted in Nicolay and Hay, Life of Lincoln, vol. x., p. go. 

VOL. II. — 14. 



2IO A Political History of Slavery 

hostilities could be suspended under some sort of secret un- 
derstanding or collusive contract, and Mr. Davis enabled to 
transfer a part of his army to the Rio Grande, where, joined 
by Northern troops, an agreement could be made with Juarez 
for the invasion of Mexico ; and that after the work was ac- 
complished there, our own affairs could be adjusted. The 
fraternization of the soldiers and the people would remove 
animosities and Peace would once more spread her wings over 
the Republic. The result of Mr. Blair's mission was the ap- 
pointment of confederate commissioners to proceed to Wash- 
ington to confer with Mr. Lincoln. The conference was held 
in Hampton Roads on the 3d of February. The commis- 
sioners were Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T, Hunter and 
J. A. Campbell. Mr. Seward was present with Mr. Lincoln. 
Mr. Stephens preserved a good account of this most interest- 
ing conference, which lasted four hours.' Speaking on behalf 
of the commissioners, he asked the President if there was no 
way of putting an end to the present trouble and bringing 
about a restoration of the general good feeling and harmony 
formerly existing between the different States and sections of 
the country. Mr. Lincoln replied that he knew of but one 
way, and that was for those who were resisting the laws of the 
Union to cease that resistance. But, said Mr. Stephens, was 
there no continental question which might divert the attention 
of both parties for a time, until the passions might cool? The 
allusion was understood by Mr. Lincoln, who immediately dis- 
claimed all responsibility for Mr. Blair's scheme. He was 
always willing to hear propositions for peace on three condi- 
tions which he considered indispensable : i. The restoration of 
the national authority throughout all the States. 2. No re- 
ceding from the position of the national executive on the sub- 
ject of slavery. 3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end 
of the war and the disbanding of forces hostile to the govern- 
ment. Although Mr. Stephens, returning to the original 
proposition, earnestly urged the postponement of a settlement 
and the adoption of some extrinsic policy to engage the atten- 

' Constitutional View of the War, vol. ii., p. 599, ei scg. 



The Hampton Roads Conference 



21 



tion of the people for a season, Mr. Lincoln insisted that the 
settlement of all difficulties was then a question of supreme im- 
portance, and the only basis on which he would entertain a 
proposition for a settlement was the recognition and re-estab- 
lishment of the national authority throughout the land. 

This emphatic declaration put an end to the conference 
proper, as the commissioners had no authority to go beyond 
the scheme emanating from the fertile brain of Mr. Blair. 
Judge Campbell inquired in what way the settlement for a res- 
toration of the Union was to be made. It was not sufficient 
to reply, "Disband your army and permit the national au- 
thority to resume its sway." The war had necessarily given 
rise to questions which required an agreement of some sort, 
before a harmonious restoration of former relations could 
properly be made. Under the confiscation acts on both sides 
property had been sold, and the title would be affected by the 
facts existing when the war ended, unless provided for by 
stipulation. Again certain classes in the South had incurred 
"pains and penalties" under the laws of the United States. 
To what extent would these laws be enforced? What position 
would the Confederate States occupy towards the other States? 
Would they be admitted to representation in Congress? 

Mr. Lincoln believed they ought to be; he thought they 
would be; but he could not enter into any stipulation upon 
the subject. His own opinion was that when resistance ceased 
and the national authority was recognized, the States would be 
wimediately restored to their practical relations to the Union. 
It is worth our while to note this reply as bearing on Mr. Lin- 
coln's views of reconstruction. But he let it be understood 
that he could not enter into any agreement upon this subject, 
or upon any other matters of that sort, with parties in arms 
against the government. He had placed emphasis on this con- 
dition when Mr. Davis insisted that his rank as commander or 
President should first be recognized before proceeding to the 
consideration of terms of peace. Mr. Lincoln declared that 
the only ground upon which he could rest the justice of the 
war was, that it was not a war for conquest, but that the States 



212 A Political History of Slavery 

never had been separated from the Union. Consequently he 
could not recognize another government inside the one of 
which he alone was President, nor admit the separate indepen- 
dence of States that were yet a part of the Union. "That," 
said he to the commissioners, "would be doing what you so 
long asked Europe to do in vain, and be resigning the only 
thing the armies of the Union are fighting for." ' Mr. Hunter 
argued the propriety of the executive entering into agree- 
ments with persons in arms against the acknowledged rightful 
authority, and cited as a precedent the correspondence be- 
tween Charles I. and the English people in arms against him. 

This was just such an opening in the argument as most de- 
lighted Mr. Lincoln's heart. His face, said Mr. Stephens, 
wore that indescribable expression which generally preceded 
his hardest hits, as he remarked: "Upon questions of history 
I must refer you to Seward, for he is posted in such things, 
and I don't profess to be. All that I distinctly recollect about 
the case of Charles I. is that he lost his head in the end." 

Mr. Lincoln remarked that he would not have touched the 
institution of slavery if he had not been driven to it by public 
necessity. He did not think the government possessed power 
over it in the States, except as a war measure. He had always 
been in favor of emancipation, but not immediate emancipa- 
tion, even by the States. Many evils attending this appeared 
to him. He advised Mr. Stephens to return to Georgia, to 
induce the Governor to call the Legislature together, and get 
it to recall all the State troops from the war, to elect Senators 
and Representatives to Congress, and to ratify the constitu- 
tional amendment abolishing slavery prospectively, so as to 
take effect — say in five years. He had looked into the sub- 
ject, and believed such a prospective ratification would be 
valid. So far as the confiscation act and other penal acts were 
concerned, he should exercise the power of the executive with 
the utmost liberality. And he reiterated what he had said 
on a former occasion, that the North was responsible for slavery 
equally with the South, and if the war should then cease, with 

' Account in the Augusta Chronicle written from the dictation of Mr. Stephens. 



The Hampton Roads Conference 213 

the voluntary abolition of slavery by the States, he should be 
in favor of the government paying a fair indemnity for the loss 
to the owners. 

On the return of the commissioners to Richmond, Mr. 
Stephens says everybody was very much disappointed, and no 
one seemed to be more so than Mr. Davis. On the 6th of 
February he transmitted to the confederate Congress the re- 
port of the commissioners, accompanied by a brief message, in 
which the situation was described in ten lines. Mr. Davis's 
position was, that inasmuch as it was settled that there could 
be no peace short of "unconstitutional" submission on the 
part of the people of the Confederate States, with an entire 
change of their social system, the people ought to be more 
thoroughly aroused by appeals through the press and by pub- 
lic addresses to the full consciousness of the necessity of re- 
newed and more desperate efforts for the preservation of 
themselves and their institutions,' The appeals and addresses 
were immediately forthcoming. Mr. Davis himself, the day 
after sending his message to Congress, appeared before an au- 
dience in the African church, and made a speech remarkable 
for eloquence and power, bold, undaunted and confident in 
tone, which was likened by his admirers to the classic appeals 
of Rienzi and Demosthenes.^ 

Mr. Hunter spoke at the same meeting and was guilty of a 
gross misrepresentation of the language used by Mr. Lincoln in 
the conference, and of the spirit shown by him. He said they 
had been informed by the President of the United States that 
there could be no peace except upon the conditions of laying 
down their arms and absolute submission, "to come in as 
rebels, and submit to laws confiscating our property, and 
awarding the death penalty to our citizens. Nor is this all. 
We are required to submit to an amendment to the United 
States Constitution, to turn loose the thousands of slaves in 
our midst without restraint and without the education which 
they would require for self-preservation." Under this system 
the negro race must perish. "Oh, Philanthropy! how much 

' Constitutional View, vol. ii., p. 622. "^ Ibid., p. 624. 



214 A Political History of Slavery 

misery is caused in thy name!" To draw a picture of subju- 
gation, Mr. Hunter declared would require a pencil dipped in 
blood to paint its gloom ! ' 

The confederate Congress, before adjourning, issued an ad- 
dress to the people of the South who were called on to rush to 
arms. They were assured that they would be kept in subju- 
gation by the stern hand of military power as Venetia and 
Lombardy had been held by Austria, or as Poland was held by 
the Czar; that their property would be confiscated and dis- 
tributed among their African bondmen ; and that 

our enemies with a boastful insolence unparalleled in the history of 
modern civilization have threatened not only our subjugation, but 
some of them have announced their determination, if successful in 
this struggle, to deport our entire white population, and supplant it 
with a new population, drawn from their own territory and Eu- 
ropean countries! 

The address concluded as follows : 

Every motive of honor and of self-interest, of patriotism and of do- 
mestic affection, every sentiment of manhood and self-respect, unite 
in nerving us to resist, to the last extremity, our cruel invaders. 
Success gives us a country and a proud position among the 
nations of the earth. Failure makes us the vassals of an arrogant 
people, secretly if not openly hated by the most enlightened and 
elevated portions of mankind. Success records us forever in letters 
of light upon one of the most glorious pages of history. Failure 
will compel us to drink the cup of humiliation even to the bitter 
dregs of having the history of our struggle written by New England 
historians! Success is within our reach. ^ 

Was this extraordinary document designed to deceive the 
Southern people, to fill their hearts with hatred towards their 
kith and kin of the loyal States, and thus render restoration 
of union difficult, not to say impossible? Or was it a proud 
defiance hurled at a foe? The men who signed it were called 
on to consider in secret session a statement of the condition of 

' Richmond papers. ^ Anmial CyclopLvdia, 1S65. 



I 



Reconstruction in Congress 215 

the confederate government which showed that it was re- 
duced to extremity. There were no resources for another 
campaign. Finances, recruiting of soldiers, commissariat, 
transportation, ordnance and ammunition and medical sup- 
plies had all failed. The Secretary of the Treasury had not 
dared to report the true condition of the finances. He had 
not the means to liquidate the public debt, and no tax levy 
would produce the means to liquidate it, as taxes were diffi- 
cult of collection for the payment of ordinary expenses; bonds 
and certificates of deposit were not salable. The supply of 
specie was $750,000, and the port of Wilmington was sealed 
to a contraband trade which might have increased the supply. 
The estimates of the year for the War Department were 
$1,337,000,000 in confederate bills.' But the army was fast 
decreasing by desertions, and no appeals, or threatened pun- 
ishment, could check them. Meanwhile Grant held Rich- 
mond and Petersburg by a firm grip, Sherman was confronting 
Johnston, and Thomas, Canby, Banks and Wilson were pre- 
pared to sweep everything before them in the Southwest. 

During the closing session of the Thirty-eighth Congress 
various phases of reconstruction were under consideration. A 
joint resolution was adopted declaring that certain States (in- 
cluding Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee), being in a state 
of armed rebellion on the 8th day of November, were not 
entitled to representation in the electoral college. The dis- 
cussion of the resolution in the Senate developed a radical 
difference of opinion as to the status of the insurgent States — 
whether they were in the Union, or out of the Union, and by 
act of rebellion debarred from all the privileges as States. Mr. 
Cowan of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Ten Eyck of New Jersey, 
sustained the view of the President as carried out by not less 
than one tenth of the citizens of Louisiana and Arkansas in 
setting up State governments after taking the oath of fealty 
and accepting the proclamation of the President relating to 
slavery. They declared that these people ought to be en- 
couraged in their loyalty and not repulsed. "I want to know," 

* Letter of Judge Campbell. 



2i6 A Political History of Slavery 

interposed Senator Wade, "what protection that one tenth 
will have when you withdraw all external power from them 
and leave them to themselves? " 

That is the very question [Mr. Cowan replied] that we must meet. 
It is the question now whether we will maintain State governments 
there in connection with the Union, or whether we will treat these 
people as a conquered people, as conquered provinces; whether we 
will assume the task of governing them entirely, or whether we will 
do that which the President is endeavoring to do now. ... I 
have no doubt that the one tenth of the people of a State organized 
with the reins of State government in their hands, the means of en- 
forcing its authority, aided by the general government, will finally 
bring back all these States to obedience. 

Mr. CoUamer of Vermont called attention to the fact that 
the act of July 13, 1861, and the President's proclamation 
thereunder declaring a state of war were still in force, which 
gave rise to the question : Suppose the rebellion to be entirely 
suppressed, was it necessary then, in order to restore the 
States to their rights in the Union, that Congress should en- 
act a law that it was suppressed? Mr. Johnson of Maryland 
held that the States were not out in one sense, but he was not 
prepared to say that if all the inhabitants of the insurgent 
States were immediately to throw down their arms, admit their 
allegiance to the United States, and elect members to Con- 
gress such members would be entitled to their seats. He re- 
served the question for future examination. 

On notifying Congress that he had signed the resolution, 
Mr. Lincoln said that he disclaimed all right of the executive 
to interfere in any way in the matter of canvassing or counting 
electoral votes; and also disci.' imed that, by signing the reso- 
lution, he had expressed any judgment of his own upon the 
subject of the resolution. 

Before adjourning. Congress passed an act to establish a 
Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen. Its object was to give 
protection to the freedmen of the South, and to white refu- 
gees that had been driven from their homes on account of 



Reconstruction in Congress 217 

their loyalty to the Union. Emancipation subjected many 
to suffering and privation, as it had deprived them of the 
protection and support of their former masters. The act 
established the bureau in the War Department, to continue a 
year after the war should close, and to it was given the super- 
vision and management of all abandoned lands and the control 
of all subjects relating to freedmen and refugees, under such 
regulations as might be prescribed by the commissioner at the 
head of the bureau and by the President. The Secretary of 
War was authorized to "direct such issues of provisions, 
clothing and fuel as he may deem needful for the immediate 
and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering 
refugees and freedmen, and their wives and children, under 
such rules and regulations as he may direct." To every 
male citizen a leasehold not to exceed forty acres might be 
granted for a term of three years, at a rental not to exceed six 
per cent, upon the appraised value, with the right of purchase, 
title passing from the United States. A similar scheme was 
devised by General Sherman when at Savannah, which re- 
ceived the approval of Secretary Stanton, known as "Special 
Field Order No. 15.'" It reserved the islands from Charles- 
ton south, the abandoned rice fields along the rivers for thirty 
miles back from the sea and the country bordering the St. 
John's River, Florida, for the settlement of the freedmen. 
The law proving inadequate, it was amended in 1866 so as to 
give to the commissioner power to quiet land titles, and to 
cooperate with benevolent associations in educating the freed- 
men. It provided also that freedmen should be protected in 
all the immunities and rights which belonged to the whites, 
and it required the President, through the officers of the 
bureau, to extend military protection and to have military 
jurisdiction over all cases concerning the free enjoyment of 
such immunities and rights. President Johnson vetoed the 
bill, but it was passed over the veto. 

The President had at heart the recognition by Congress of 

' Dated Jan. 16, 1865. See Memoirs, pp. 244-253, for interesting information 
on the condition of the freedmen. 



2i8 A Political History of Slavery 

the governments of Louisiana and Arkansas set up under his 
plan of reconstruction. Senator Trumbull came to his relief, 
and, to the surprise of his fellow Senators, reported from the 
Committee on the Judiciary a resolution to recognize the gov- 
ernment of the State of Louisiana "as the legitimate govern- 
ment of said State, entitled to the guaranty and all other 
rights of a State government under the Constitution of the 
United States." When it came up for consideration, Febru- 
ary 23d, Mr. Sumner began a systematic opposition to the 
measure, in which he was assisted by Howard, Wade and 
other radicals. His position was that the insurgent States 
should not be restored to all of the rights of States in the 
Union except on the footing of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, "with all persons equal before the law, and government 
founded on the consent of the governed. In other words, 
there shall be no discrimination on account of color. If all 
whites vote, then must all blacks; but there shall be no limi- 
tation of suffrage for one more than the other." ' About the 
same time his friend, Salmon P. Chase, the new Chief Justice, 
expressed more clearly the political motive impelling the 
movement for universal suffrage. 

Shall the loyal blacks of rebel States [he asked] be permitted to 
protect themselves and protect white loyalists also by their votes 
from new oppressions by amnestied but still vindictive rebels ? I 
cannot doubt what a just and magnanimous people will determine. 
They will say, "Let ballots go with bullets; let freedom be de- 
fended by suffrage," and again legislation and administration will 
bow to the majesty of the people." 

The factious opposition of eight Senators sufficed to defeat 
the Louisiana resolution, to Mr. Lincoln's great regret. It also 
engendered a feeling of bitterness in the Senate which im- 
paired the strength and usefulness of the majority. 

The Washington of 1865 had the character of the Southern 

' Letter to John Bright, March 13th. Pierce's Sumner, vol. iv., p. 229. 
^ Remarks before the Freedmen's Association of Washington, Cincinnati 
Gazette, March 7th. 



Lincoln's Second Inauguration 219 

type of city, with this difference, that its imposing public 
buildings only served by contrast to heighten the hideous ugli- 
ness of the rows of one-story shops lining the thoroughfares 
and the incongruity of unpaved streets. The day for the sec- 
ond inauguration of Abraham Lincoln was ushered in with 
rain, but before the hour appointed the mass of clouds disap- 
peared, leaving a few fleecy clouds flitting over the sky to 
deepen the ethereal blue and make more resplendent the sun- 
light of a spring day, — the morning emblematic of Mr. Lin- 
coln's four stormy years; the afternoon, of the peace and glory 
before him. The inaugural address was unlike any that pre- 
ceded it — brief, expressing patriotic sentiments, and in the 
depth of its religious feeling reminding one of a Psalm of 
David. The philosopher Lincoln could not but reflect on the 
course of a Christian people torn into factions and plunged 
into the abyss of civil war, invoking the aid of the same Divine 
power. "It may seem strange," he said, "that any men should 
dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread 
from the sweat of other men's faces," but added in the spirit of 
true charity — "but let us judge not, that we be not judged." 
The slaveholders of the South were not the only class en- 
gaged in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's 
faces. "The prayers of both could not be answered. That of 
neither has been answered fully." But hear what Whittier, 
humanity's favorite poet, had sung a month before, after the 
signature of the President had been affixed to the Thirteenth 
Amendment:' 

Did we dare, 

In our agony of prayer, 
Ask for more than He has done ? 

When was ever His right hand 

Over any time or land 
Stretched as now beneath the sun ? 

Mr. Lincoln concluded with these sublime and immortal 
words : 

The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world 

' Laus Deo was printed in the Independent, Feb. gth. 



220 A Political History of Slavery 

because of offences ! for it must needs be that offences come ; but woe 
to that man by whom the offence cometh ! " If we shall suppose that 
American slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence 
of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His 
appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both 
North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by 
whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from 
those Divine attributes which the believers in a living God always 
ascribe to Him ? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that 
this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God 
wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's 
two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and 
until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by 
another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, 
so still it must be said " the judgments of the Lord are true and 
righteous altogether." 

With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in 
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish 
the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him 
who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan, 
to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace 
among ourselves and with all. nations. 

And the song of the poet is heard again : 

Blotted out ! 

All within and all about 
Shall a fresher life begin ; 

Freer breathe the universe 

As it rolls its heavy curse 
On the dead and buried sin ! 

The thousands who had stood in the mud in front of the 
east end of the Capitol to witness the impressive scene of the 
inauguration, when it was concluded, separated silently, pon- 
dering the solemn words of the President, which had for them 
in a few weeks a deeper, a more sacred meaning. 

Meanwhile Grant's combinations for crushing the Confed- 
eracy in arms had been completed. In Alabama and Georgia 
the great cavalry force organized by General Thomas was ad- 



The End of the War 221 

vancing successfully under the immediate command of General 
Wilson. In east Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia 
General Stoneman was conducting a series of operations that 
would render Lee's escape by Lynchburg impossible. Sher- 
man held Johnston, Sheridan still commanded in the Shen- 
andoah valley, but was prepared to take part in the more active 
work about Richmond when Grant should say the word. 

General Sheridan's march from Winchester to the front of 
Petersburg, which began on the 27th of February and was 
completed on the 28th of March, was made in almost incessant 
rain, through deep and almost impassable streams, swamps 
and mud. Sheridan was completely successful. The James 
River canal was disabled beyond immediate repair, and the 
railroad communication west of Richmond was cut off, thus 
reducing General Lee to dependence on the two railroads run- 
ning southwest. And he was to be immediately deprived of 
these. Sheridan, now in command of the extreme left of 
Grant's army, destroyed the Southside railroad April ist, 
gaining a great victory at Five Forks and holding his position, 
which was of the first importance in Grant's plan for envelop- 
ing Lee. Early the next day, Sunday, a general advance is 
made, and is successful everywhere. The national force meets 
stubborn resistance, but it prevails, in each movement gaining 
an advantage. Can the enemy escape? The possibility is a 
source of anxiety to Grant, who knows that the union of Lee 
and Johnston on some new field means an indefinite continua- 
tion of the war. During an interval in the fighting. General 
Lee reports to the authorities at Richmond the state of affairs 
at Petersburg, and gives notice that it is his purpose at night- 
fall to abandon both the capital and Petersburg. The Presi- 
dent of the Confederacy is in attendance at St. Paul's church. 
The congregation, standing, are engaged in silent prayer. 
A messenger enters, walks rapidly up the aisle to the chancel, 
and hands Mr. Davis a sealed envelope. It is torn open, the 
contents read, after which Mr. Davis with hat in hand walks 
quietly and with dignity down the aisle and into the street. 
The services are resumed, but are interrupted by the arrival of 



222 A Political History of Slavery 

another messenger, and yet another, and the withdrawal of 
ladies, and in a few moments the congregation, followed by the 
minister, giving up the sacred service, pass out and to their 
homes to prepare, in silent resignation, for whatever is to 
come.* 

A few miles away, at City Point, is another President, twice 
elected by the freemen of the United States. Ill-health and 
the annoyance of political pressure send him to take refuge 
with the quiet man in command of the national army, whose 
simple tastes, unostentatious habits of life and wonderful self- 
poise in great emergencies soothe and inspire with confidence 
the great soul burdened with care. On this Sabbath day he 
is in communication with the Lieutenant-General who is at the 
front, and is telegraphing frequently advices of the fighting. 
Almost at the moment when Mr. Davis in St. Paul's church 
is reading the fateful message from Lee, Mr. Lincoln is writing 
the following message to Secretary Stanton : 

City Point, ii a.m., April 2. 
Dispatches are frequently coming in. All is going on finely. 
Generals Parke, Wright and Ord's lines are extending from the 
Appomattox to Hatcher's Run. They have all broken through the 
enemy's entrenched lines, taking some forts, guns and prisoners. 
Sheridan, with his own cavalry, the Fifth Corps, and part of the 
Second, is coming in from the West on the enemy's flank. Wright 
is already tearing up the Southside railroad. 

A. Lincoln. 

Late in the afternoon Mr. Davis, accompanied by his cabi- 
net, staff and confidential clerk, departed by train for Dan- 
ville, where he hoped to be joined by the army of General Lee. 
That night the retreat began which ended at Appomattox. 
When Mr. Lincoln entered Petersburg on the 3d, perfect silence 
pervaded the place. On the piazza of a deserted house, await- 
ing his coming, were General Grant and his staff. Besides 
these and a small escort of cavalry, not a soul was to be seen. 
Here General Grant explained to the President for the first 

* From Manassas to Appomattox, p. 607. 



k 



The End of the War 223 

time aH of his movements and what he hoped to accomph'sh.' 
Early in the morning of the same day. General Weitzel with 
the Second Brigade of the Third Division of the Twenty- 
fourth Army Corps, entered Richmond. The officials had left, 
and the people were demoralized. The tobacco warehouses 
and the government workshops had been set on fire, and the 
whole city was endangered. The Union troops put out the 
fire and restored order. Later, Mr. Lincoln arrived and 
walked the streets. The remarkable scene that followed his 
recognition by the colored people is familiar to all. Its won- 
derful pathos touches the heart and impresses it far more 
deeply than any other incident in our life as a people. The 
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man stand re- 
vealed. As the "great ages onward roll" it is Lincoln, the 
central figure of this scene in Richmond, who will stand 
among the immortals. 

The efforts of Lee's army to escape were futile. Regiments 
melted away, the soldiers quietly dropping out of rank to go 
to their homes, but there was still a considerable force devoted 
to the fortunes of their leader. The way to Danville was 
found to be blocked. They turned toward Lynchburg, where 
Lee once said he could maintain himself for years. General 
Gordon was asked to attempt to break through the cavalry 
line of Sheridan. Supported by Fitz Lee's cavalry he moved 
to the attack. The national cavalry fell back slowly, and all 
seemed to be going well, when suddenly a transformation took 
place. In place of the cavalry the enemy was confronted by 
serried lines of infantry— the Army of the James under Gen- 
eral Ord and the Fifth Corps. When this new condition was 
reported. General Lee said: "There is nothing left but for me 
to go and see General Grant." The latter had considerately 
opened the way for him on the 7th, by calling his attention to 
the hopelessness of further resistance. The two commanders 
met at the house of Wilmer McLean, a gentleman who was 
residing near Manassas in 1861 and had removed to Appomat- 
tox to be free from war's alarms. Thus fate decreed that he 

^Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 459. 



224 A Political History of Slavery- 

should witness the first great triumph of the Confederates and 
their final surrender after defeat. 

General Lee, omitting no form that should show respect to 
his great adversary, was clothed in a new uniform, with richly 
embroidered belt and dress sword and sash, buff leather gaunt- 
lets, boots and a pair of gold spurs. He was a tall, dignified 
gentleman, nearly sixty years old, whose bearing showed a 
high degree of culture and intelligence. In striking contrast 
in appearance on this occasion was the leader of the national 
army, who rode from his lines in haste for this meeting. He 
wore a soldier's blouse for a coat, was without a sword, and 
had nothing about him except his shoulder straps to indicate 
his rank. He was of medium height, of compact build and 
about forty-three years of age. The shape of his head, the 
lines of his face, showed resolution and a reserved power which 
time and opportunity alone could thoroughly test. His char- 
acter was not yet fully developed. His bearing was that of an 
intelligent gentleman having a perfect mastery of business, 
rather than that of a military leader. There was an absence 
of the characteristics of the martinet, or of one who gloried in 
the pomp and circumstance of war. The two soldiers greeted 
each other and then fell into pleasant conversation about old 
army times. Apparently the purpose of the conqueror was to 
spare the feelings of the less fortunate officer. The business 
in hand was approached in the simplest way. Generous terms 
were proposed and accepted, we may be sure not without emo- 
tion. These were : The officers to give their individual paroles 
not to take up arms against the government of the United 
States until properly exchanged, and each company or regi- 
mental commander to sign a like parole for the men of his 
command. The arms, artillery and public property to be 
packed and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed 
to receive them. The officers were permitted to retain their 
side arms, private horses and baggage. "This done, each offi- 
cer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to 
be disturbed by the United States authority so long as they ob- 
serve their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside." 



The End of the War 225 

After a moment's reflection, overwhelmed by the realization 
of the poverty of the paroled soldiers and their families, Gen- 
eral Grant added that he would instruct his officers to let every 
man who claimed to own a horse or mule take the animal to 
his home. General Lee remarked that this would have a 
happy effect. The fraternization of the soldiers of the two 
armies proved that they cherished no animosities. Concord 
was restored for them. But what of ambitious leaders? What 
of political questions? We shall soon see. Meanwhile, the 
victorious commander, thinking only of his country, hastened 
to Washington to stop the purchase of supplies and the further 
waste of money, for he believed the end was at hand. 

The surrender of General Lee led to negotiations between 
General Johnston and General Sherman. An agreement for 
a suspension of hostilities, and a memorandum of terms of 
peace, subject to the approval of the President, were made on 
the 1 8th. This memorandum not being approved by the Presi- 
dent, another meeting between the commanding officers was 
held, at which General Johnston accepted the same terms as 
were given to General Lee. Secretary Stanton took occasion 
to animadvert publicly on General Sherman for his memoran- 
dum, which the latter resented also publicly. The soldiers of 
Sherman's army had hoped to share in the taking of Rich- 
mond, but this was not permitted lest it create a feeling of 
jealousy. The Western armies had been in the main success- 
ful until they had conquered all the territory from the Missis- 
sippi River to the State of North Carolina, and it would not 
do to let them open the gates of Richmond.' 

The public rejoicing, begun on the fall of Richmond, gained 
in intensity when the surrender of Lee was known. But while 
there was firing of cannon and a display of bonfires and sky- 
rockets and oratory, these were a part of the expression of 
gratitude to God for the dawn of peace. The announcement 
reached the West Sunday night, and in most cities the ringing 
of bells brought the people into the streets when impromptu 
meetings were held. At Columbus there was a great gathering, 

'Grant's Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 460. 



226 A Political History of Slavery 

which was addressed by Governor Brough. In the course of 
his remarks, he alluded to an event that had much to do with 
the final success. Ohio, by putting her National Guard into 
the field, had liberated 50,000 veterans, by whose help General 
Grant had been enabled to drive Lee from the Wilderness and 
defeat him at Spottsylvania. Had this not been done, he 
could not have forced the enemy back into Richmond, and 
held him there with a firm grip. An appropriate reference to 
the day moved the vast concourse to join in singing the Dox- 
ology, " Praise God from whom all blessings flow." Spontane- 
ously the hymn was repeated, after which the people returned 
to their homes. 

The religious faith [said the New York Times] which carried the 
loyal people through such an ordeal, is filly followed now by a 
religious gratitude. It is wonderful to mark the solemn character 
of joy that now spreads over the land. . . . The dominant feel- 
ings of the people is no ebullient exhilaration over human achieve- 
ment, but a profound sense of a Divine blessing. The popular heart 
relieves itself, not so much in cheers and hurrahs as in doxologies.' 

In the midst of the manifestations of joy a subject of serious 
import occupied the thoughts of many people. The military 
power of the insurgents had been broken, but there was the 
mass of the Southern people and their emancipated slaves to 
be dealt with. What should be their treatment? How and in 
what form should civil government he restored in the insur- 
gent districts? The rebellious State governments might be 
recognized, but in what relation would they stand to the na- 
tional authority? How execute judgment for the crime which 
had filled the land with woe, so that it should be a warning for 
all time? How temper justice with mercy, so that the act 
should conform to righteousness? How build up civil govern- 
ment on disorganized and discordant elements, replace mili- 
tary power by the rule of law, transfer the protection of society 
to a people hostile to the national authority, and establish 
peace on such foundations that the blood and treasure should 

' April nth. 



The Problem of Reconciliation 227 

not be thrown away? The difference of opinion among loyal 
people as to the mode, manner and measure of reconstruction 
was a source of embarrassment. We have seen how it had al- 
ready divided the executive from the legislative department. 
Mr. Lincoln, in his last public speech, while defending his 
Louisiana plan of reconstruction, recognized the embarrass- 
ment. He concluded with the remark that in the situation it 
might be his duty to make some new announcement to the 
South. What new scheme had taken form in the mind of the 
President, can only be conjectured. In less than three days 
he was struck down by the bullet of the assassin. That it was 
in keeping with the spirit of his second inaugural address, we 
feel certain. 

A class representing the best thought and culture of the 
country hastened to deprecate any vengeful action. This feel- 
ing found appropriate expression in Faneuil Hall directly 
after the fall of Richmond. The war brought to a successful 
conclusion, the greater work of peace, said Robert C. Win- 
throp, remained to be undertaken, and would require all the 
energies and all the endurance of the people. "Let us ex- 
hibit our land in the noblest of all attitudes — the only attitude 
worthy of a Christian nation — that of seeking to restore and 
maintain peace and brotherhood at home and abroad." It was 
in the power of the United States to set such an example of 
moderation in the hour of triumph, as should strike the imagi- 
nation of other peoples and show the superiority of republican 
over monarchical governments. Let this great civil war be 
ended as no other ever was — without the shedding of blood in 
vengeance. The loyal people were bondsmen for the welfare 
and prosperity of the whole country, not of a section. 

Few men can afford to be just [said Henry Ward Beecher in 
Plymouth church] until they first learn how to love. Men ask: 
Ought not the principal leaders to be executed ? Ought there not 
to be a terrible spectacle of retribution ? If Mr. Davis was my 
lawful prey to-night I would do by him as I did with another 
wasp yesterday. I saw the fellow on my door in the country, and 
was just about to smash him, when I said: "What 's the use ? It 's 



228 A Political History of Slavery 

only a wasp, and it 's not at all probable that he and I will ever 
meet again, so I '11 let him go." That 's what I 'd do to Jeff 
Davis. Let him go away where he '11 be by himself, powerless to 
injure us, and of no particular account to anybody else. 

Mr. Beecher had a mission to go to South Carolina. "In that 
crumbling pulpit of Charleston Harbor I am your minister to 
say to them, there is nothing now between us and you ; we are 
brethren; we love you, and desire your regard in return; and 
on such a mission as that I will go forth most cheerfully."' 
Those who gave expression to this fraternal feeling- — Sumner, 
Chase, Whittier and others besides Mr. Beecher — had at heart 
not simply the freedom but the full enfranchisement of the 
black man. It was believed that reconstruction without this 
would be an injustice, a fatal policy. The Republic should be 
established upon manhood suffrage, upon the equality of all 
men before the law, upon justice. In no other way could the 
poor be made secure against the rich. 

Doubtless a majority of loyal people felt that the terrible 
lesson of the war, which had been precipitated because a mi- 
nority objected to the election of Mr. Lincoln, ought not to be 
thrown away by seeking to spare the rebels the conviction that 
they were conquered. A gush of emotions and fine senti- 
ments would not take the place of statesmanship. A journal ' 
of wide influence, holding to this more generally accepted 
opinion, reminded those who inconsiderately referred to the 
parable of the Prodigal Son as containing the lesson which the 
North ought to take to heart, that in the parable of the Prodi- 
gal Son there was first a repentant wanderer returning with 
humbled spirit to confess his sin, acknowledge his unworthi- 
ness to be numbered among the sons, and to crave a place 
among the servants ; and the father, while rejoicing over the 
rescue of his erring son from perdition, yet abating nothing of 
the rights of the faithful son. 

But so bent are the minds of some upon this emotional manner of 

settlement with the insurgents, that they are willing to enact the 

' New York Tribune, April 6th. ^ The Cincinnati Gazette, April I2th, 



I 



The Assassination of Lincoln 229 

play of the Prodigal Son with the part of the repenting prodigal 
left out, and to have the father bring him back still rebellious and 
malignant, and give him the place of honor and control over the 
whole patrimony. 

/''^This would be to encourage further rebellions. 

A false issue had been raised to hide the real question, as if 
they who hesitated to restore the rebel class to political power 
sought vengeance, sought to hold the States as conquered 
provinces; as if they were insensible to mercy, magnanimity 
and generosity to a fallen foe. What they asked was the 
same obedience to law that they themselves observed. What 
they sought to impose was only such safeguards as should be 
necessary to establish peace on permanent foundations, to re- 
move the cause of sectional conflict, and to hold the local gov- 
ernments in abeyance until loyalty should be so established 
that they might safely be entrusted to the majority of the 
inhabitants. 

"The victory that day was turned into mourning unto all 
the people." A few hours after General Robert Anderson had 
raised the starry banner over Sumter on the 14th of April, and 
it had been saluted by the guns of all the captured rebel forts 
and greeted by the shouts of the people present ; after the 
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher had delivered the promised mes- 
sage of peace and good will, and offered congratulations that 
God had preserved the life of the President, "and permitted 
him to behold this auspicious consummation of that national 
unity for which he had waited with so much patience and for- 
titude, and for which he had labored with such disinterested 
wisdom," — in the very moment when all seemed secure and 
every heart was filled with gladness, the people were plunged 
into the abyss of grief and woe unspeakable by the assassina- 
tion of the President. The sunlight was suddenly extin- 
guished, the azure of heaven was succeeded by a pall of black, 
the mind was filled with fear, with an awful dread of evil im- 
pending. Shot in Ford's Theatre by Wilkes Booth, an actor, 

// the instrument of the malignity of foiled partisans! Why 



230 A Political History of Slavery 

repeat the story known of all men? A nation mourns for the 
loss of the beloved magistrate, the wisest counsellor, the ten- 
derest heart, the great, far-seeing leader. 

Of leaders slain before his time, only one bears a resemblance 
to Lincoln, the republican. Two hundred and eighty-one 
years before, the head of a people engaged in a life-and- 
death struggle with despotism — who were successfully resisting 
the dreaded Inquisition and the all-conquering soldiers of 
Spain — was assassinated in his own residence in Delft. There 
are many points of resemblance in the character of William of 
Orange and Abraham Lincoln. The nature of each was frank 
and generous. A love of justice was the guiding principle of 
action with both, and both reached that degree of wisdom 
which extends to others the most perfect toleration. Each 
was resourceful in emergencies, brave in the midst of dangers. 
They excelled in statecraft, and, as statesmen, were original, 
broad-minded and far-seeing. There was the experience of 
almost three centuries between them. They fought the same 
fight of humanity, with this difference, that William of Orange 
had to contend with the powers of darkness as well as with the 
Spanish army. It was the happy fate of Mr. Lincoln to pro- 
claim the freedom of millions born into a state of slavery, 
and, cooperating with Congress, to inaugurate and perfect 
measures which forever prohibited the restoration of the sys- 
tem. Seizing opportunity by the forelock, William of Orange 
with masterly skill formed such combinations as worked the 
overthrow of despotism and secured to a great people freedom 
of religious opinion, freedom of speech and of the press. His 
home became a refuge to the oppressed of other countries. 
From the shore of the North Sea adventurous and God-fearing 
men carried to America the principles of liberty which made 
great the Republic of which Abraham Lincoln nearly three 
hundred years later became the President. Both won the love 
and confidence of men by the display of the noblest traits of 
character, both in controlling and directing affairs appealed 
to the public reason and conscience, never to fear or base 
motives. 





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CHAPTER IX 

ANDREW JOHNSON'S PLANS FOR RECONSTRUCTION — THE 
FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT 

THE war was at an end. If the song of triumph was not 
heard in the South, there was a feeling of relief that no 
further sacrifices were demanded. The dissatisfaction 
of the people with Mr. Davis's management, with the tyranny 
centralized at Richmond, was profound, and they welcomed 
peace. The iron soldiers of Lee and Johnston and Longstreet 
quietly returned to their homes, to repair the waste of a four- 
years' effort to destroy what their fathers had builded. Many 
of the leaders in the secession movement escaped from the 
country. General Breckinridge, who had participated in the 
conference between Generals Sherman and Johnston, made 
his way to Cuba. General Toombs proceeded by way of Hav- 
ana to Paris. Jefferson Davis, unfortunately for the peace 
of the country, was captured by a detachment of General 
Wilson's cavalry. It was the desire of Mr. Lincoln and others 
that he should escape from the country. Such leaders of the 
secession movement as were captured and imprisoned for a 
time were never brought to trial. No one was hanged for 
treason. There were no bloody executions, as in other coun- 
tries. 

The reorganization of the Southern States was the paramount 
question of the day. The refusal of President Lincoln to sign 
the reconstruction bill passed by Congress left 'the executive 
without a law to guide him in dealing with the insurgent 
States. Whatever course Mr. Johnson might take would not 

231 



232 A Political History of Slavery 

save him from criticism and open opposition in some quarter, 
because there was no agreement among the leading public men 
of the day over the questions involved. These were open to 
debate, but meanwhile, the President was called on to act to 
preserve order within the States involved. The language uni- 
formly used by him in the beginning of his administration mis- 
led the public as to the policy he would adopt in reorganizing 
the States. "Let it be engraved on every heart," he said, 
"that treason is a crime, and that traitors shall suffer its 
penalty." 

While we strain our minds [he added] to comprehend the enor- 
mity of the assassination of Mr. Lincoln we may remember the 
//infinity of the guilt which sought to assassinate the nation. I 
make this allusion not to excite the already exasperated feelings of 
the public, but to point out the principles of justice which should 
govern our action at this particular juncture, and which accord with 
public morals. 

This remark invited the comment from an earnest journal * 
that, when treason should be made infamous, public morality 
and justice would be established and future peace secured. 
And treason could be made odious not by bloody executions, 
but by the forfeiture of political rights, not of States, but of 
individuals. The class which conspired and carried on the war 
ought never to be restored to political power. Disfranchise- 
ment of them would secure the reconstruction of government 
in the hands of the loyal people. But were not the mass of 
the people of the South compromised with rebellion? To 
whom would the term "loyal" apply? Union men there were 
in most of the States, in some they were in the majority at the 
outbreak of the war, but they were swept into the bloody cur- 
rent with their rebellious neighbors. If guaranties were once 
obtained, magnanimity might be boundless when the end of 
law — the safety of society — was secured. There was no sug- 
gestion in all this that suffrage for freedmen would be made a 
condition. Even Mr. Beecher in his Charleston address did 

' Cincinnati Gazette. 



Johnson's Reconstruction Plans 233 

not set forth this as an essential part of reconstruction. "One 
nation, under one government, without slaves," said he, "has 
been ordained and shall stand. There can be peace on no 
other basis. On this basis reconstruction is easy, and needs 
neither architect nor engineer. Without this basis no engineer 
or architect shall ever reconstruct these rebellious States." 
The Constitution, the laws, the government — these constitute 
the foundation of security to society to-day, to-morrow, for 
all time. 

The views of the President took more definite form after 
the passing of the storm of passion. In an interview with the 
Hon. James M. Ashley, who, with other radicals, was pressing 
upon Mr. Johnson the claim of the negro to suffrage, the 
President declared that, while he desired that all men should 
vote without distinction of color, the States that had been in 
rebellion were still States; that their governments were not 
destroyed, but were only in abeyance, and that when the re- 
bellion was suppressed or the laws and Constitution revived, 
neither he nor Congress had any authority to prescribe the 
qualification of electors in those States.' In other words, the 
political existence of the States is indestructible. "I do not 
mean to treat them as inchoate States," he remarked to Gen- 
eral John A. Logan, "but merely as existing under a tempo- 

' Toledo Commercial, June 7, 1S65, which contains a full report of Mr. Ashley's 
address. In his extraordinary "inaugural" address, when he took the oath as 
Vice-President, March 4th, Mr. Johnson said: "I desire to proclaim that Ten- 
nessee is free. She has bent the tyrant's rod, she has broken the yoke of slavery, 
she stands to-day redeemed. She waited not for the exercise of power by Con- 
gress ; it was her own act ; and she is now as loyal, Mr. Attorney-General, as the 
State from which you come. It is the doctrine of the federal Constitution that no 
State can go out of this Union, and, moreover. Congress cannot eject a state from 
this Union. Thank God, Tennessee has never been out of the Union ! It is 
true, the operations of her government were for a time interrupted ; there was an 
interregnum ; but she is still in the Union and I am her representative. This day 
she elects her Governor and her Legislature, which will be convened on the first 
Monday of April, and her Senators and Representatives will soon mingle with 
those of her sister States ; and who will gainsay it, for the Constitution provides 
that to every State shall be guaranteed a republican form of government." Mr. 
Lincoln approved of Mr. Johnson's reorganization of civil government in Ten- 
nessee. The Rev. William G. Brownlow was elected Governor. 



234 A Political History of Slavery 

rary suspension of their governments, provided always they 
elect loyal men. The doctrine of coercion to preserve a 
State in the Union has been vindicated by the people." All 
that he felt required to do was to put the loyal people in the 
way to a full restoration of their constitutional rights and privi- 
leges as members of the Union. It might seem that the gov- 
ernment had been tardy to protect the Union men in the 
South, he said to a South Carolina delegation, "but they are 
protected now, and having reached that protection they should 
come forward and stand upon an equality with the other loyal 
men everywhere in the country." On the question of suffrage 
he claimed that in the exercise of the war power he could im- 
pose conditions upon persons who had been engaged in rebel- 
lion as punishment for crime. He could withhold the right of 
suffrage from certain classes formerly exercising it ; but he 
could not extend it to other classes excluded by State consti- 
tutions. Southern men were advised to extend, voluntarily, 
suffrage to the negroes. Judge Yerger of Mississippi was told 
that no good reason aside from the prejudices of the people 
could be given for excluding them from the right of suffrage.' 
This opinion, expressed by one whose origin was of the 
"poor white class," carried with it less weight than if it had 
fallen from the lips of a member of the old aristocracy. The 
efforts of the executive and others who, to preserve the sem- 
blance of consistency, held to the doctrine that States insur- 
gent were all the while in the Union, was the cause of most of 
the difficulty. The declared purpose in 1861 — the language of 
the Crittenden resolution as to the objects of the war — was, 
that the States were to be forced to return with all of their 
rights unimpaired, including the system of slavery. The 
amnesty and emancipation proclamations changed the con- 
ditions. Of necessity, President Lincoln demanded the recog- 
nition of the validity of his proclamations as a condition 
precedent to the return of a State. Having imposed a single 
condition, he could with as much right impose others. In 
either case, the theory of the States remaining in the Union 

' Washington correspondence Boston Advertiser. 



Objections to Negro Suffrage 235 

with rights only in abeyance while engaged in rebellion was 
knocked in the head. If the President could exclude one man 
as a voter, he could exclude ten thousand, and if he could ad- 
mit any one man to vote he could admit all loyal men without 
regard to color. Nor was this the whole matter. Congress 
could as well impose conditions which should be thought es- 
sential to an enduring peace. 

President Johnson adopted Mr. Lincoln's Louisiana plan for 
reorganizing civil government in the States, with modifications 
suggested by the radicals making it more stringent. Thus, 
he debarred from taking the oath eight classes permitted by 
Mr. Lincoln, unless they first had a special pardon from him, 
and he omitted a clause from the oath prescribed, which 
strengthened it. The new amnesty proclamation was issued 
May 29, 1865. It granted pardon and amnesty, with all 
rights of property (except slaves, and in cases where legal pro- 
ceedings had been instituted under the confiscation act) to all 
who had been in rebellion, upon taking an oath to "faithfully 
defend the Constitution of the United States thereunder, and 
in like manner to abide by, and faithfully support, all the laws 
and proclamations which have been made during the existing 
rebellion, with reference to the emancipation of slaves." To 
each of the clauses of this oath Mr. Lincoln, in his proclama- 
tion of December 8, 1863, had added these qualifying words: 
' ' So long and so far as not modified or declared void by the 
decision of the Supreme Court.'' It was objected to this, that it 
left room for mental reservations. Accordingly, it was omitted 
by President Johnson. In another respect, there was agree- 
ment between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Johnson. The latter in- 
creased the number of excepted classes, but indicated, as did 
his great predecessor, that clemency would be liberally ex- 
tended by the executive." Mr. Lincoln would have been 

' " In the archives of the State Department there are some twenty-four large 
volumes recording the pardons granted in less than nine months after the procla- 
mation. The aggregate number is nearly fourteen thousand, and the list in- 
cludes prominent men of all classes in the South. . . . Many of these sought 
to place themselves in harmony with the restored Union and looked forward 



236 A Political History of Slavery 

gratified to see qualified suffrage conferred on the colored race 
— the right to vote given to the black soldiers and to such 
freedmen as could read — but he did not make that a condition 
in the work of reorganization. Nor did Mr. Johnson, who 
stood by the Thirteenth Amendment, and also suggested to 
the provisional Governors that it would be well to grant the 
elective franchise to all negroes who could read the Constitu- 
tion of the United States and write their names, and to those 
who owned real estate valued at not less than two hundred and 
fifty dollars. 

Mr. Johnson understood, as well as Mr. Lincoln, that race 
prejudice had prevented the enfranchisement of the colored 
man in most of the Northern States; that while Republican 
New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio refused this boon, it 
would be difficult to reconcile other communities, where the 
prejudice was almost universal, to the exaction of manhood 
suffrage as a condition precedent to a restoration of the States 
to all the rights and privileges of the Union. In Ohio, partial 
suffrage was acquiesced in, but the enfranchisement of all of 
the colored people would undoubtedly be rejected. Indiana's 
constitution excluded colored immigrants from the State, and 
there were still odious black laws upon her statute books 
The black man was not only not permitted to vote, but not 
permitted to testify in the courts of justice. His children 
were excluded from the public schools, notwithstanding he 
was taxed equally with his white neighbor. No negro enter- 
ing the State after the year 1850 could make a valid contract, 
or acquire title to land. Every man giving such a person em- 
ployment was liable to prosecution and fine. More than half 
the members of the Twenty-eighth Indiana colored regiment, 
men who had fought well for two years, would come under 
the exclusion rule on attempting to return to the State, and 
be liable to prosecution and fine ' — to legal persecution insti- 

hopefully to the events of the future. Many others, as it must be regretfully but 
truthfully recorded, . . . accepted every favor with an ill grace, and showed 
rancorous hatred to the national government even when they knew it only as a 
benefactor." — Blaine's Twenty Years of Cons^ress, vol. ii., p. 76. 

' Speech of Governor O. P. Morton at Richmond, September 29, 1865. 



J 



Objections to Negro Suffrage 237 

gated by those whose hearts were filled with hatred of the 
race. 

The President, in a second proclamation, appointed William 
W. Holden provisional Governor of the State of North Caro- 
lina. It was made his duty to assemble a convention, com- 
posed of delegates who were loyal to the United States, and 
no others, 

for the purpose of altering or amending the constitution thereof, 
and with authority to exercise within the limits of said State all 
the powers necessary and proper to enable such loyal people of the 
State of North Carolina to restore said State to its constitutional 
relations to the federal government and to present such a republi- 
can form of State government as will entitle the State to the guaranty 
of the United States therefor, and its people to protection by the 
United States against invasion, insurrection and domestic violence. 

No one was qualified as an elector or eligible as a delegate un- 
less he had previously taken the prescribed oath of allegiance, 
and unless he also possessed the qualifications of a voter de- 
fined by the State constitution and laws in force prior to the 
ordinance of secession. This excluded the loyal freedmen from 
all participation in the election of delegates to the constitutional 
convention, and committed the work of reorganization to the 
white men, who, outside of the excepted classes (the old lead- 
ers and men of experience and culture), were ready to take the 
oath of fealty to the government. It gave to them the power 
to prescribe the qualification of electors, and the eligibility of 
persons to hold ofifice under the constitution and laws of the 
State. Thus, the President, in determining that he would not 
insist upon giving the freedmen the right to vote as an in- 
dispensable condition of reconstruction, rendered certain a 
renewal of the bitter warfare with philanthropically-inclined 
citizens, who believed there could be no permanent peace 
until justice should be rendered alike to all, without discrimi- 
nation on account of color or race. While the work of reor- 
ganizing civil government within the State was in progress, 
postal facilities were renewed, the United States courts were 



238 A Political History of Slavery 

reopened, and the authority of the general government was 
restored throughout the boundaries of the State. Like action 
was taken in Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, South 
Carolina and Florida.' The governments of Tennessee, Ar- 
kansas, Louisiana and Virginia established under Mr. Lin- 
coln's authority, were now recognized. By the middle of 
July the whole scheme, which had received the approval of 
every member of the Cabinet ' was in operation and soon de- 
veloped a capacity to disappoint the confident anticipations of 
the majority of the people of the North. 

But before this became manifest, the President received the 
endorsement of the Union party in several States. The brave 
fight made by Mr. Johnson in Tennessee, and the tenor of his 
conversations soon after he became President, led the people 
to expect that in the work of reorganization the rights of all 
included in the loyal classes would be protected. An impor- 
tant State convention was held in Columbus, Ohio, June 21st, 
which was attended by all the able leaders of the dominant 
party and included a large delegation of ofificers from the army. 
Governor Brough having declined to accept a renomination,' 
General Jacob D. Cox was selected as the head of the ticket 
with unanimity. The high character and manly independ- 
ence of General Cox made him an ideal candidate, and in- 
sured a candid discussion of all of the vital questions of the 
day. 

' William L. Sharkey was appointed provisional Governor of Mississippi, June 
13th ; James Johnson of Georgia and Andrew J. Hamilton of Texas, June 17th ; 
Lewis E. Parsons of Alabama, June 21st ; Benj. F. Perry of South Carolina, June 
30th, and William Marvin of Florida, July 13th. 

^ President Johnson retained the Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln, which was constituted 
as follows : William H. Seward of New York, Secretary of State ; Hugh 
McCulloch of Indiana, Secretary of the Treasury ; Edwin M. Stanton of Penn- 
sylvania, Secretary of War ; Gideon Wells of Connecticut, Secretary of Navy ; 
James Speed of Kentucky, Attorney-General ; William Dennison of Ohio, 
Postmaster-General ; James Harlan of Iowa, Secretary of the Interior. Secre- 
tary Seward was in May sufficiently recovered from the murderous blows of the 
assassin to enable him to discharge the duties of his office. 

^ Governor Brough was already suffering from the illness which proved fatal 
August 29th. 



Party Sustains President 239 

The radicals formed a large and influential element in the 
convention, but they refrained from making an issue on suf- 
frage. The overthrow and eradication of slavery was felt to 
be a paramount consideration of the hour; and no expression 
of opinion that might embarrass or prevent this consumma- 
tion was permitted. For this reason, negro suffrage was sub- 
ordinated to the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment.* 
The army delegates instructed their representatives to "insist 
upon an unequivocal endorsement of the policy of the Presi- 
dent." The resolution upon this subject, which received the 
unanimous approval of the convention, was certainly explicit. 
It declared that the President "has now our highest confi- 
dence, and that we cheerfully endorse the policy of his admin- 
istration, looking to the restoration of peace and civil order in 
the so-called seceded States, and that, as Union men of Ohio, 
we will give him our hearty and undivided support," There 
was another resolution which should be read in this connec- 
tion, as it contains the fixed purpose of the Union party of 
Ohio: 

That while we are anxious for an early reconstruction of fraternal 
relations with the insurgent States, we demand that such recon- 
struction shall be at such time and upon such terms as will give 
unquestioned assurance of the peace and security, not only of the 
loyal people of the rebel States, but also of the peace and prosperity 
of the federal Union, 

At the ratification meeting which was held at the close of 
the convention, Senator Sherman thanked the delegates for 
having pledged to the President the support of the party, a 
pledge he believed the people of Ohio would make good. The 
questions growing out of the war were grave and difficult, and 
if, in dealing with them, the administration failed to come up 
to the standard of those living in Ohio, the people should be 
kind and forbearing. On the other hand, General Schenck 
declared that he would be in no hurry to invite any of the 

'Judge William M. Dickson, Review of General Coxs Letter, August lO, 1865. 
Judge Dickson drafted the Ohio platform. 



240 A Political History of Slavery 

insurgent States back, unless satisfied that they were in a per- 
fectly sound and healthy condition, and fit to cooperate with 
the other people of the Union in the great work of perpetu- 
ating the liberties of the country. South Carolina had been 
about thirty years conspiring to get out of the Union, culmi- 
nating in an attack upon the government, and he did not care 
if she were thirty years getting back, so that when she came 
back the country would have no more trouble from that 
source. Let it take one or ten years, in all that relates to the 
general government and these States. "We should keep our 
hand upon them, keep our military in charge of them, let 
them grow into a sound and healthy state and then build upon 
them as a part of the common structure of the entire Union." 

Mr. Sumner declared that neither the rebelUon nor slavery 
was yet ended; that while there was still a quasi rebellion, so 
there was still a qiiasi slavery. Guaranties must be exacted 
before rehabilitation. To secure these, time was necessary. 
"There must be no precipitation. Time is the gentlest, but 
most powerful, revolutionist. Time is the surest reformer. 
Time is a peace-maker. Time is necessary to growth, and it 
is an element of change." The same thought occurred to Mr. 
Sumner as to General Schenck. "For thirty years and more 
this wickedness was maturing. Who can say that the same 
time will not be needed now to mature the conditions of per- 
manent peace?" ' General Henry V. Boynton, writing from 
Raleigh, N. C., deprecated the haste manifested to supersede 
the provisional governments of the South with permanent 
ones, as there was danger that the bloody sweat of the North 
would prove to have been spent in vain through the scheming 
of politicians.* 

The situation was so complicated with race antagonisms, 
with the feeling of resentment engendered by defeat and loss 
of wealth and power, with the ignorance of large classes, with 
the fear of social degradation, and with the confusion of mind 
resulting from the sudden overthrow of a political theory to 

' Speech of Charles Sumner at the Republican State Convention in Worcester, 
September 14, 1865. Pamphlet. ''Cincinnati Gazette, July 6, 1865. 



Party Sustains President 241 

which social order had been adapted, that broad statesmanship 
alone — statesmanship, wise, patient and charitable — was com- 
petent to deal with it. Time was an element of importance — 
Time the great healer. 

There was yet another source of embarrassment in the Nor- 
thern States. The "Copperhead " Democrats, who had gained 
no wisdom during four years of war, were hoping that the 
Thirteenth Amendment might fail to receive the support of 
enough States to make it a part of the fundamental law. They 
were repeating the argument of Mr. Pendleton that the amend- 
ment violated the spirit of the Constitution, by invading the 
reserved rights of the States. Unteachable in their perverse- 
ness, they did not see that revolution had changed the whole 
relation of things. The Southern aristocracy had made slav- 
ery the issue of the conflict. When the rebellion fell, the in- 
stitution of human bondage on the American continent fell 
also. There could be no restoration until this fact should be 
engrafted on the Constitution. This was the first step. The 
second involved the protection of the wards of the nation. 
How should that be done? Here differences arose among the 
Unionists. Some philanthropists, fearing a race conflict, ob- 
jected to the enfranchisement of the freedmen, as repeating 
the error committed by the founders of the Republic when 
they compromised two antagonistic principles. The nation 
owed it to itself, to the world, and to the common Father of 
all to protect the negro in the enjoyment of all natural rights. 
Should we go further and bestow political rights and privileges 
on him? There was no logical connection between the two. 
Political disfranchisement was no new thing in government, 
and there was not necessarily any hardship in it. If suffrage 
were extended to the freedmen, God in His providence might 
decree another war to prove to us that emancipation was not 
the necessary or logical antecedent of enfranchisement. The 
settled policy of the government should be to establish the 
blacks in a land of their own, and one adapted to their consti- 
tutions and habits.' General Cox, now the standard-bearer of 

' The Right of Suffrage, by " Phocion." Pamphlet, p. lo. 

VOL. II.— 16. 



242 A Political History of Slavery 

the Union party in Ohio, was the most conspicuous champion 
of the policy of a peaceable separation of the races. He felt 
that there could be no political unity in a forced fusion of bit- 
terly hostile races, "but rather a strife for the mastery, in 
which the one or the other would go to the wall." ' This was 
met by a sneer from Mr. Sumner, who exclaimed : 

God save the West! . . . It is vain to say that this is the 
country of the white man. It is the country of Man. Whoever 
disowns any member of the human family as brother disowns God 
' as father, and thus becomes impious as well as inhuman. It is the 
glory of republican institutions that they give practical form to this 
irresistible principle. If anybody is to be sent away let it be the 
guilty and not the innocent. The expatriation of leading rebels 
will be a public good. As long as they are here they will resist 
guaranties; but it is little short of madness to think of exiling loyal 
persons, whose strong arms are needed, not only for the cultivation 
of the soil, but also for the protection of the government itself.^ 

Judge Dickson denied the existence of any such "rooted 
antagonism" between the whites and the blacks of the South 
as was alleged, and the whole philosophy founded upon it. 
That prejudices existed he would admit. They were of the 
same nature as other prejudices, and should have the same 
treatment. The prejudices between Jew and Christian, Prot- 
estant and Catholic, have been softened down by the opera- 
tion of the sublime principles of our government. Such would 
be the result of extending those principles to the black race. 
The negro would feel, having entire equality before the law, 
the ambition to become a good citizen; and the ambitious 
white man would respect the power of the negro votes, and 
endeavor by kind treatment to gain them.^ Was it objected 
that the Southern negroes were ignorant and unfit to vote? 
Yet they shared this ignorance in common with the poor 

' Letter of Gen. J. D. Cox to citizens of Oberlin. 

'Speech of Charles Sumner at Worcester, Mass., September 14, 1865. 
^Review of General Cox's Letter, by Judge William M. Dickson, August 10, 
1865. 



Discussion of Negro Suffrage 243 

whites, and if the educational test was to be applied to the 
black man it should also be applied to the white. Freedom 
is the school in which freemen are to be taught, and the ballot 
box is a wonderful educator.' 

John Stuart Mill was brought into the controversy, and his 
great authority placed in the balance in favor of bestowing on 
the freedmen political rights to enable them to protect their 
natural rights. Another point was scored by Mr. Mill — the 
importance of their aid in maintaining the faith of the govern- 
ment. He said : 

The Southern people, their lives, bodies and estates were, by the 
issue of the v/ar, placed at the discretion of their conquerors; but 
of conquerors whom both the general law of right, and the special 
principles of their own social and political institutions, forbid to 
exercise permanent dominion over any human beings as subjects, 
or on any other footing than that of equal citizenship. It would, 
however, be on the part of the free States a generosity partaking of 
silliness, were they to give back to their bitter enemies not only 
power to govern themselves, and the negroes within their limits, 
but (through representatives in Congress) to govern the free States 
too, without first exacting such changes in the structure of Southern 
society as will render such a relation between them and the free 
States rational and safe. If you have not a right to do this, you 
had not a right to impose the abolition of slavery. Consider what 
an element you are going once more to admit into the supreme 
government of the Union. Think of this one thing — it is but one 
of many: every Southern member of Congress elected without negro 
suffrage is a sure vote for that blackest and most disgraceful breach 
of faith, which would brand American democracy and popular gov- 
ernment itself with a mark that would endure for generations — the 
repudiation of the war debt.* 

The security which this class of thinkers believed to be nec- 
essary, Mr. Sumner declared, "must be found in organic law 
with irreversible guaranties; and these irreversible guaranties 

' Address by Judge Dickson at Oberlin, October 3, 1865. 

^ Letter from John Stuart Mill to Judge W. M. Dickson, September i, 1S65. 
Pamphlet. 



244 A Political History of Slavery- 

must be co-extensive with the danger." Another class of 
earnest Union men would meet the suffrage problem by 
amending the Constitution so as to apportion the political 
powers of the States, not by population, but according to the 
number of voters, white or black. If the negro was denied a 
vote he must not be represented. The effect would be to 
drive the Southern whites by degrees to enfranchise the 
colored men for the purpose of increasing their power in Con- 
gress.' It had at last dawned on the North that unless there 
should be a constitutional regulation or manhood suffrage 
should be established, the inequity of Southern representa- 
tion would be increased by two fifths, thus giving to each 
elector two votes to the Northern elector's single ballot. 

Evidence accumulated during the closing months of the 
year of the systematic oppression of the freed people ; of the 
prevalence of a feeling of hatred for those citizens who had 
manifested Union sentiments, and for the Northern men so- 
journing in the South. But for the presence of the military, 
the situation of these classes would have been made very un- 
comfortable, not to say dangerous. Respect was shown to 
the authority of the Union soldier, but he was still looked 
upon as a stranger, as an intruder — the "Yankee," the 
"enemy." It was the opinion of an intelligent observer, 
writing from New Orleans, that the South never before so 
deeply hated the North ; and that the negro without a vote 
would be infinitely worse off than he was in slavery.'' "It be- 
hooves all our citizens," wrote Jacob Barker to another 
Southerner who had taken the oath, "to return at once and 
qualify themselves to vote. Do this and we shall assuredly 
succeed in giving the newcomers leave of absence at the next 
election." The Union men of Louisiana, after having stood 
the brunt of persecution and untold hardships during the 
"reign of terror," finding themselves persecuted by their en- 
emies, could obtain no redress for their grievances in the civil 
courts of the State, and little protection from the federal 

' Governor Morton at Richmond, September 29th. 
■^Cincinnati Gazette, July 6, 1865. 



Persecution of Negroes 245 

authorities.' It was supposed that under the proclamation of 
the President, loyal Unionists would be largely engaged in the 
work of reconstruction ; but they were brushed aside by those 
to whom pardon and amnesty were extended. The homes of 
some of them were burnt ; some were shot ; others had to flee 
for their lives. The Governor announced that whatever hap- 
pened, Louisiana should not be "Yankeeized." 

In South Carolina the President's provisional Governor de- 
clared that the compulsory return of the State to the Union 
was humiliating and degrading.^ The feeling that they had 
been overpowered by numbers, and would submit from neces- 
sity, was entertained by a large and influential class in all of 
the States. But, understanding the serviceableness of prudence 
in such an emergency, they advised that men of moderate 
sentiments be returned to Congress, since otherwise they 
would be sure to be refused admission. Cities and towns en- 
acted "black codes," as in the days of slavery. In Franklin, 
and elsewhere in Louisiana, colored persons were not permitted 
to remain within the corporate limits, except during certain 
hours of the day, and then only with a written pass from their 
former owners or employers. Citizens transacting business 
with freedmen, or leasing houses to them, without a written 
permit from former masters, were liable to prosecution. Two 
worthy citizens of the parish of Terrebonne were indicted by 
the grand jury for having expressed the opinion that the 
freedmen should vote, and that unless this privilege were 
peacefully granted, blood would be shed in obtaining it.* 
Laws concerning apprenticeship and vagrancy were made ap- 
plicable alone to colored people. The clear intent of these 
laws was to reduce the victims to slavery for a limited period, 
since, in case of failure to pay the fine — usually a large sum — 
on conviction, they could be "hired out " by the town officials 
for six months — the amount realized for such service to be 

' Statement of Capt. D, E. Haynes, who commanded a company of scouts in 
the Red River expedition, December 30, 1865. 

' " Agate " (Whitelaw Reid), correspondence Cincinnati Gazette, August 3, 1865. 
'Speech of Michael Hahn of Louisiana, in Washington November, 19, 1865. 



246 A Political History of Slavery 

paid into the treasury of the county. It was made the duty 
of all sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other civil officers of 
the several counties, by a law of Alabama, to report the 
"names of all minors under the age of eighteen years, whose 
parents have not the means or who refuse to support said 
minors," and thereupon it was the duty of the court "to ap- 
prentice said minor to some suitable person on such terms as 
the court may direct. " And, in the language of the old 
slave-code, "whoever shall entice said apprentice from his 
master or mistress, or furnish food or clothing to him or her, 
without the consent of the master or mistress shall be fined in 
a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars." 

General Carl Schurz, who went South at the request of the 
President to make observations as to the working of his recon- 
struction plan, expressed the opinion that, according to his ob- 
servation, the free-labor system of that region was not, in a 
majority of cases, undertaken in good faith on the part of the 
planters. They affected to disbelieve in the possibility of its 
success, and by their course sought to make it a failure, if pos- 
sible. Should the military be removed, the whites would at 
once act upon the theory that the blacks would not work ex- 
cept on compulsion. General Schurz thought that, under the 
circumstances, the freedmen were doing a "middling fair" 
show of labor. He said, further, that at the close of the war 
the planters attempted to keep their former slaves on the plan- 
tations, believing that as soon as civil government should be 
restored the emancipation proclamation would be declared un- 
constitutional, and the negroes be again reduced to slavery.* 

General Schurz's official report, moderate in tone, cited 
cases which went to show that the preconceived opinion of the 
Southerner that the negro would not work without compulsion 
influenced his treatment of the free laborer. When instances 
were given of faithful work on plantations, the comment would 
be that General Schurz was probably mistaken, or misin- 
formed, as everybody knew the negro would not work without 
compulsion. "I heard a Georgia planter argue most seriously 

' Letter of General Schurz from Charleston to the Boston Advertiser. 



I 



Persecution of Negroes 247 

that one of his negroes had shown himself certainly unfit for 
freedom, because he impudently refused to submit to a whip- 
ping." Negroes were kept on plantations by ruse or violence 
in South Carolina and Georgia, and where they attempted to 
escape they were wounded or killed outright. In one district 
of Mississippi the colored people were kept in slavery still. 
The white people told them that during the war they were 
free, but the war being over they must go to work again as 
before. Speaking in general terms. General Schurz declared 
that, so far, the spirit of persecution had shown itself so strong 
as to make the protection of the freedmen by the military arm 
of the government in many localities necessary, in almost all 
desirable. The friends of the freedmen were also under con- 
demnation. Governor Sharkey admitted to Generals Schurz 
and Osterhaus that, if the troops were withdrawn, the lives of 
Northern men in Mississippi would not be safe. 

It must not be forgotten that in a community, a majority of whose 
members is peaceably disposed but not willing or able to enforce 
peace or order, a comparatively small number of bold and lawless 
men can determine the character of the whole. The rebellion 
itself, in some of the Southern States, furnished a striking illustra- 
tion of this truth. 

This charitable view, unfortunately, did not explain away 
the work of Legislatures and city councils in contriving schemes 
to re-enslave the negroes, and in imposing restrictions upon 
their movements severer than in the days of slavery. The 
Legislature of Mississippi provided by law that if a laborer 
should quit the service of an employer before the expiration of 
his term of service without just cause, he should forfeit his 
wages for that year up to the time of quitting. "Practically 
the negro was himself never permitted to judge whether the 
cause which drove him to seek employment elsewhere was 
just, the white man being the sole arbiter in the premises." * 
The conviction that without the aid of the Freedmen's Bureau 
the colored people would not be permitted to labor at fair 

' Twenty Years of Congress, vol. ii. p. lOO. 



248 A Political History of Slavery 

prices, and could hardly live in safety, was justified by count- 
less facts, and the observations of Union men and military 
officers of prominence. With such protection, the colored 
people on the plantations in Louisiana were able to find em- 
ployment at fair wages.' For a brief while they would enter 
into no agreements with the planters because of the expecta- 
tion that they would be enabled to work only for themselves 
on lands of their own — the gift of the government." This fact 
was clear, that there was no general disinclination to work, but 
instead a laudable desire to be permitted to work on land 
which they could call their own. 

All educational means or instrumentalities calculated to 
raise the standard of intelligence among the colored people 
incurred the opposition and enmity of a large class. And yet 
there were planters, broad-minded and philanthropic, who be- 
lieved that the education of the freedmen was essential for the 
protection of society, and who were governed by a sense of 
justice and humanity in dealing with the laborers. Perhaps 
the fairest statement was made by ex-Governor Hahn in his 
Washington address. He did not believe that the majority 
of the Southern insurgents participated in the acts and feelings 
of vindictiveness to the friends of the colored man himself. 
"Many, very many, and, I trust, a large preponderance hon- 
estly accept the issues of the war and the results of their de- 
feat ; but others who manifest a contrary disposition, in some 
places already exhibit a formidable political power." And 
this power, believed to be in the minority, as in 1861, was able 
to determine the political action in all of the insurgent States, 
except Arkansas and Tennessee, in 1865. The candidates for 
State offices and Congress who had been true to the Union 
were almost universally defeated by men who could not take 
the prescribed oath of office, and who made no secret of their 
hostility to the government and people of the United States.' 

' Report of General J. S. Fullerton, December 2, 1865, which is very favorable 
to the white people of Louisiana. He asserts that the black man had the same 
protection in the courts as the white. "^ Ibid., p. 2. 

* Report of Joint Cofnmittee on Reconstruction, 1866, p. x. 



k 



The Thirty-ninth Congress 249 

These political leaders must have known that the act of July 
2, 1862, prohibiting any person from holding any federal 
office, who had been directly or indirectly concerned in the 
rebellion, was yet unrepealed, and that if enforced the Con- 
gressional candidates they had chosen could not take their 
seats. 

Such was the political situation in the insurgent States when 
the Thirty-ninth Congress assembled on the 4th of December, 
1865. For the first time in the history of the United States 
was it possible and appropriate for a chaplain in addressing the 
throne of grace to use these words: "We praise Thee with 
thanksgiving that the statue of Freedom now looks down from 
our Capitol upon an entire nation of free men." ' The House, 
overwhelmingly Republican, re-elected Mr. Colfax, who re- 
ceived 139 votes to 36 cast for James Brooks. The address 
of the Speaker was of an unusual character, and indicated the 
state of public feeling on the all-important subject of the res- 
toration of the States lately in rebellion. 

Of Congress [he said] the duties are as obvious as the sun's path- 
way in the heavens. ... Its first and highest obligation is to 
guarantee to every State a republican form of government, . . . 
to mature and enact legislation which, with the concurrence of the 
executive, shall establish them anew on such a basis of enduring 
justice as will guarantee all necessary safeguards to the people, and 
afford — what our Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, 
proclaims is the chief object of government — protection to all men 
in their inalienable rights. The world should witness, in this great 
work, the most inflexible fidelity, the most earnest devotion, to the 
principles of liberty and humanity, the truest patriotism, and the 
wisest statesmanship. 

The Thirty-ninth Congress made history. It had to deal 
with the difficult and embarrassing questions which the seces- 
sion of States and a four years' civil war had created, compli- 
cated by a serious disagreement between the executive and 
legislative departments. Few if any of its predecessors 
embraced in its membership so many men conspicuous for 

' Prayer offered in the Senate by the Reverend Edgar H. Gray, Cong. Globe, 



250 A Political History of Slavery 

ability and character. Mr. Fessenden had returned to the 
Senate, to be again the colleague of Mr. Morrill. Trumbull, 
Sumner, Wade, Grimes, Sherman, Reverdy Johnson, Wil- 
son, Chandler, DooHttle, Henderson, Anthony, Clark and 
Dixon had won recognition from the whole country by their 
ability and unselfish patriotism. Mr. Hendricks strengthened 
the Democratic side. In the death of Mr. CoUamer the Senate 
lost a statesman of unusual powers and acquirements, whose 
judicial fairness won the respect and confidence of oppponents 
as well as friends. He was succeeded by George F. Edmunds, 
who rapidly rose to prominence. James Guthrie of Kentucky, 
who had served creditably as Secretary of the Treasury during 
the administration of Mr. Pierce, became the colleague of 
Garrett Davis. Richard Yates of Illinois, James Harlan of 
Iowa, Jacob M. Howard of Michigan, John A. J. Creswell 
of Maryland, Aaron H. Cragin of New Hampshire, were new 
members. La Fayette S. Foster of Connecticut was Presi- 
dent of the Senate. 

The venerable Thaddeus Stevens, saturnine, indomitable, 
cool and arrogant, but withal a lover of man, was the leader 
of the House. Justin S. Morrill, Henry L, Dawes, George S. 
Boutwell, Samuel Hooper, William D. Kelley, Samuel J. 
Randall, Elihu B. Washburne, George W. Julian and James 
Brooks were men who commanded attention and whose 
familiarity with legislative business made them valuable mem- 
bers. Roscoe Conkling had regained his seat, and numbered 
among his new colleagues Henry J, Raymond, the editor of 
the New York Times. James G. Blaine was just coming into 
prominence. Nathaniel P. Banks, after a creditable career as 
a soldier, resumed the seat he had left eight years before to 
become Governor of his State. Rhode Island was ably rep- 
resented by Nathan F. Dixon and Thomas A. Jenckes. 
Rowland E. Trowbridge of Michigan, who had entered the 
Thirty-seventh Congress, had as a new colleague Thomas W. 
Ferry, who soon came into prominence. Burton C. Cook, 
Shelby M, Cullom and Jehu Baker were new members from 
Illinois. Halbert E. Paine and Philetus Sawyer of Wisconsin 



Johnson on Reconstruction 251 

were among the most useful of the members of this Congress. 
In the Iowa delegation were James F. Wilson, William B. 
Allison and John A. Kasson, of national reputation. General 
Lovell H. Rousseau and Green Clay Smith gave prominence 
to the Kentucky delegation. "Captain Samuel McKee, now 
of Mount Sterling," writes General Hayes in his diary, "rep- 
resents sixteen of the hard mountain counties of northeastern 
Kentucky. He does n't travel on the Sabbath, plays no 
cards, neither drinks nor uses tobacco, and is an Abolitionist ! 
The war has done the work of centtiries. Five years ago the 
same constituency zuoiild have voted to crucify him." "Ohio 
grew even stronger than before, and her delegation was again 
recognized as the leading one of the House," is the remark 
of Mr. Blaine.' General Robert C. Schenck, Samuel Shella- 
barger, John A. Bingham, Columbus Delano and Rufus P. 
Spalding were men of large experience and of national repu- 
tation. It is doubtful if any one State was ever before repre- 
sented by so many men as keen and able in debate. James 
A. Garfield, also of the delegation, was pushing his way to 
the front as a speaker of great power. Surpassing these in the 
soundness of his judgment and self-poise, was Rutherford B. 
Hayes, who entered Congress for the first time. His tastes 
led him to prefer the council room to the arena of debate, 
and he never became quite reconciled to the noisy tumults of 
the popular branch of Congress. 

The message of the President was largely devoted to re- 
construction. It was a forcible exposition of the theory on 
which he had proceeded in the reorganization of civil govern- 
ment through provisional Governors appointed by himself. 
The alternative proposition of military governments he had 
rejected, as they "would have offered no security for the early 
suppression of discontent, would have divided the people into 
the vanquishers and the vanquished, and would have en- 
venomed hatred rather than have restored affection." While 
restoring civil government he had invited the rebellious States 
to participate in the high office of amending the Constitution. 

' Twenty Years of Congress, vol. ii., p. 121. 



252 A Political History of Slavery 

Every patriot [added the President] must wish for a general 
amnesty at the earliest epoch consistent with public safety. For 
this great end there is need of a concurrence of all opinions, and 
the spirit of mutual conciliation. All parties in the late terrible 
conflict must work together in harmony. It is not too much to ask, 
in the name of the whole people, that on the one side the plan of 
restoration shall proceed in conformity with a willingness to cast the 
disorders of the past into oblivion, and that on the other the evi- 
dence of sincerity in the future maintenance of the Union shall be 
put beyond any doubt by the ratification of the proposed amend- 
ment to the Constitution, which provides for the abolition of slavery 
forever within the limits of our country. . . . This is the 
measure which will efface the sad memory of the past; this is the 
measure which will most certainly call population and capital and 
security to those parts of the Union that need them most. Indeed, 
it is not too much to ask of the States which are now resuming their 
places in the family of the Union to give this pledge of perpetual 
loyalty and peace. Until it is done, the past, however much we may 
desire it, will not be forgotten. The adoption of the amendment 
. . . makes us once more a united people, renewed and strength- 
ened, bound more than ever to mutual affection and support. 

This having been accomplished, it w^ould remain for the States 
to resume their places in the two branches of the national 
legislature, and thereby complete the work of restoration. 

In respect to the qualifications for suffrage in the rebellious 
States, the President did not think the general government 
should interfere, but should leave that matter where it was 
originally left by the federal constitution. 

Every danger of conflict is avoided when the settlement of the 
question is referred to the several States. They can, each for itself, 
decide on the measure, and whether it is to be adopted at once and 
absolutely or introduced gradually and with conditions. In my 
judgment, the freedmen, if they show patience and manly virtues, 
will sooner obtain a participation in the elective franchise through 
the States than through the general government, even if it had 
power to intervene. 



Stevens's View of Southern Status 253 

That power the President denied. The tone of the message 
was moderate and concihatory, and if members of Congress 
had refrained from harsh criticism, an agreement on a com- 
mon policy between the two branches of government might 
have been reached. A single sentence in the message should 
have caused members to pause and consider whether after all 
they were pursuing the course best calculated to promote the 
welfare of the freedmen. "I know," said Mr. Johnson, "that 
sincere philanthropy is earnest for the immediate realization of 
its remotest aims; but time is always an element in reform." 
The remark of a South Carolinian to a Union officer, that 
it ought not to be expected that the Southern people would 
change their convictions immediately, was construed as an 
evidence of contumacy and hatred of the government. The 
lapse of time has proved the injustice of the quick judgment. 
The South Carolinian was a philosopher. Men do not adapt 
themselves suddenly to radical changes. They grope their 
way with hesitating and uncertain steps, beset with appre- 
hensions of possible disaster. They have to divest themselves 
of prejudices and old opinions gradually, before their minds 
can accept the new truth. Looking back over the experience 
and the political instruction of the Southern people as we have 
sketched them in these pages, must we not conclude that some 
persons were unwise in expecting a conversion as sudden as 
St. Paul's ? 

The fact being generally recognized that the rebellious 
States had lost their constitutional relations to the Union, 
it mattered little, said Mr. Stevens, with this admission 
whether they were regarded as out of the Union and as 
conquered provinces, or only as dead States in the Union, 
which was the President's view. The question in either 
case was, whose special duty was it to restore their existence 
— their political relations to the other States? In whom does 
the Constitution place the power ? The answer was found 
by Mr. Stevens in the fourth article of the Constitution, 
which says: "New States may be admitted by the Congress 
into this Union." 



254 A Political History of Slavery 

Unless the law of nations is a dead letter, the late war between 
two acknowledged belligerents severed their original compacts, and 
broke all the ties that bound them together. The future condition 
of the conquered power depends on the will of the conqueror. 
They must come in as new States, or remain as conquered provinces. 

Congress, with the concurrence of the President, 

is the only power that can act in the matter. But suppose, as some 
dreaming theorists imagine, that these States have never been out of 
the Union, but have only destroyed their State governments so as 
to be incapable of political action; then the fourth section of the 
fourth article applies, which says: "The United States shall guar- 
antee to every State in this Union a republican form of govern- 
ment." Who is the United States? Not the judiciary; not the 
President; but the sovereign power of the people, exercised through 
their representatives in Congress, with the concurrence of the 
executive. It means the political government — the concurrent 
action of both branches of Congress and the executive. 

The decision of the Supreme Court in Luther vs. Borden (7 
Howard), before cited, certainly amply sustains this view of 
the case. The territorial view, held from the beginning by 
Mr. Stevens, simplified the work of reconstruction, if only the 
executive had accepted it. 

The danger threatened by the manumission of slaves in- 
creasing the Congressional representation of the South had 
been pointed out by "Phocion" in the Cincinnati Gazette at 
an early day; again by John Stuart Mill in his letter to Judge 
Dickson, and a few weeks later it had received elaborate treat- 
ment by Mr. Sumner in his Worcester speech. In support of 
the resolution he offered in a caucus of the Ohio members to 
base representation on the franchise instead of population, 
General Schenck made an argument of such power as placed 
him at the head of that very able delegation. Mr. Stevens 
now declared that if the negroes were deprived of suffrage 
they should be excluded from the basis of representation. 
With an apportionment based on population the South would 



Stevens's View of Southern Status 255 

be entitled to eighty-three Representatives; the colored 
people excluded, the white population would be entitled to 
forty-six seats in the House. By the adoption of this policy 
the right to prescribe the limitation of suffrage would remain 
with the States. 

With the basis unchanged, the eighty-three Southern members, 
with the Democrats that will in the best times be elected from the 
North, will always give them a majority in Congress and in the 
Electoral College. They will at the very first election take posses- 
sion of the White House and the halls of Congress. I need not 
depict the ruin that would follow. Assumption of the rebel debt or 
repudiation of the federal debt would be sure to follow. The 
oppression of the freedmen; the re-amendment of their State con- 
stitutions, and the re-establishment of slavery would be the inevit- 
able result. 

Mr. Stevens said that the principle should be first estab- 
lished, that none of the rebellious States should be counted in 
any of the amendments to the Constitution until they were 
duly admitted into the family of States by the law-making 
power of their conqueror. In the second place, it was time 
that Congress should assert its sovereignty and proceed in its 
own way to recreate and reinstate the conquered States 
(provinces) in the family of States and invest them with the 
rights of American citizens. Referring to the assertion of 
provisional Governor Perry and others that "this is the white 
man's government," he said that the sentiment was "politi- 
cal blasphemy, for it violates the fundamental principles of 
our gospel of liberty." This is man's government. "Equal 
right to all the privileges of the government is innate in every 
immortal being, no matter what the shape or color of the tab- 
ernacle which it inhabits. " If equal privileges were granted 
to all, he should not expect any but white men to be elected 
to office for long ages to come. The prejudice engendered by 
slavery would not soon permit merit to be preferred to color. 
But it would be beneficial to the weaker races. "In a country 
where political divisions will always exist, their power, joined 



256 A Political History of Slavery 

with just white men, would greatly modify, if it did not en- 
tirely prevent, the injustice of majorities." 

The speech of Mr. Stevens disturbed the administration, 
and the desire was expressed that some Republican should 
reply to it before Congress adjourned over the holidays. This 
duty fell to Henry J. Raymond, who was intimate with the 
Secretary of State. He discussed the problem of reconstruc- 
tion in the light of the acts of President Lincoln and his suc- 
cessor. He controverted Mr. Stevens's theory. If there were 
no constitution of any sort in a State, no law, nothing but 
chaos, then that State would no longer exist as an organiza- 
tion. But the fact was that there was never any time during 
the rebellion when the Southern State organizations were 
destroyed. "A dead State is a solecism, a contradiction in 
terms, an impossibility." Secession was never accomplished, 
although attempted. The doctrine of Mr. Stevens would 
compel the acceptance, virtually and practically, of the right 
of a State to withdraw from the Union and to break up the 
Union at its own will and pleasure. Another consequence 
would be our inability to talk of loyal men in the South. 
"Loyal to what? Loyal to a foreign, independent Power, as 
the United States would become under those circumstances? 
Certainly not." Still another consequence of the doctrine 
would follow. "If that confederacy was an independent 
Power, a separate nation, it had the right to contract debts; 
and we, having overthrown and conquered that independent 
Power, according to the theory of the gentleman from Penn- 
sylvania, would become the successors, the inheritors, of its 
debts and assets." Mr. Raymond held that the President 
had taken such action in the work of restoration as clearly 
belonged to the executive, and had left to the Congress the 
restoration of the judicial branch of the civil authority, and 
the determination of the representation of the States in their 
respective Houses. 

Mr. Raymond said he should endeavor to act upon the 
whole question in the broad and liberal temper which its im- 
portance demanded. He would exact from the rebellious 



Raymond Defends Johnson's View 257 

States all needed and all just guaranties for their future 
loyalty to the Constitution and laws of the United States. 
He would impose upon them through the constitutional legis- 
lation of Congress, and by enlarging and extending the scope 
and powers of the Freedmen's Bureau, proper care and pro- 
tection for the helpless and friendless freedmen. He would 
exercise a rigid scrutiny into the character and loyalty of the 
men whom they might send to Congress, before they should 
be allowed to participate in the high prerogative of legislating 
for the nation. He would seek to allay rather than to stimu- 
late the animosities and hatred, however just they might be, to 
which the war had given rise. It was important to cultivate 
friendly relations: for the people of the North to seek to pro- 
mote the interests of the South as part and parcel of their own. 
The clearness of his argument and the moderate spirit he dis- 
played added to Mr. Raymond's reputation. 

The debate was resumed after the recess. Mr. Spalding, 
representing the people of the Western Reserve, said they 
would be satisfied if the substance of the following proposi- 
tions should be adopted : Extend a qualified right of suffrage 
to the freedmen in the District of Columbia ; amend the Con- 
stitution in respect to the apportionment of Representatives 
and direct taxes among the several States of the Union, in 
such manner that "people of color" shall not be counted 
with the population making up the ratio, except it be in States 
where they are permitted to exercise the elective franchise ; 
prohibit by express terms in the Constitution nullification and 
secession ; prohibit by constitutional amendment the repudia- 
tion of the national debt, and the assumption by Congress 
of the rebel debt; provide in the Constitution that "no person 
who has at any time taken up arms against the United States 
shall ever be admitted to a seat in the Senate or House of 
Representatives in Congress." The policy of the Union party 
at this time was to leave the question of suffrage with the 
States. But representation should not profit by extensive dis- 
franchisement. While supporting this, General Hayes de- 
clared that his decided preference was to make the suffrage 



258 A Political History of Slavery 

of all in the South — white and black — depend on ediicatio7i ; 
and sooner or later in the North also — say all new voters 
should be able to write and to read.' 

Mr. Shellabarger, in a speech which has never been surpassed 
in Congress in respect to the effectiveness of its argument, 
set forth with logical precision the status of the insurgent 
States during the war, the penalties incurred by rebellion, and 
the constitutional powers and obligations of the general 
government in the work of restoration. The question before 
Congress — by far the most momentous constitutional question 
ever considered by that body — was condensed and affirmed 
in the following sentence: 

It is under our Constitution possible to, and the late rebellion did 
in fact so, overthrow and usurp in the insurrectionary States the 
loyal State governments as that, during such usurpation, such States 
and their people ceased to have any of the rights or powers of gov- 
ernment as States of this Union; and this loss of the rights and 
powers of government was such that the United States may and 
ought to assume and exercise local powers of the lost State govern- 
ments, and may control the re-admission of such States to their 
powers of government in this Union, subject to and in accordance 
with the obligation to "guarantee to each State a republican form of 
government." 

So compact is the argument that follows the statement of 
the question that to attempt to condense it would be to mar 
the work of a master. Brief reference to two or three points 
will show the character of the whole. Mr. Raymond had made 
the assertion that the Constitution "does not deal with States 
except in one or two instances, such as elections of members 
of Congress and the election of electors of President and Vice- 
President." This statement, which Mr. Shellabarger declared 
involved an amazing error both of fact and law, was quickly 
disproved by referring to fifty or more important provisions 
of the Constitution which deal with States as such. The pur- 
pose of the speaker in reciting these provisions clearly was to 

» Hayes's Diary. MS. 



Shellabarger's Analysis 259 

show how baseless was the argument founded upon the asser- 
tion — made in i860 and 1861, and repeated again and again — 
that the Constitution did not deal with States but individuals 
only, and that, therefore, not the States, but only individuals 
could lose their rights under such Constitution. He did show 
that the precise opposite was the truth. 

I wanted to show [said he] that the very body, soul, life, and 
essence of the Constitution is penetrated, pervaded, and character- 
ized by and with this recognition of the States, and of their high 
powers as such. I wanted to bring into view the momentous and 
controlling fact which disposes of this high constitutional question, 
that the States are not only "dealt with" by the Constitution, but 
that their powers as States in our government are absolutely vital. 
And I separated the obligations and restraints imposed upon the 
States and their officers from the conferments of rights and powers 
upon them, that it might appear to all men and to the very children 
who can read their Constitution that, in this marvellous great scheme 
of government, as in every other wise human government, as well 
as in God's, the enforcements of obligation are coupled with and 
inseparable from the enjoyment of rights; that prescribed qualifica- 
tions for the attainment of power must be possessed and proceed, 
and are inseparable from the exercise of power. I wanted to show 
that there could be, under the Constitution, none of the rights or 
powers of a State where there were recognized none of the obliga- 
tions or duties of a State. 

If this recital did not prove that a State whose government 
and people were in actual hostility to the United States was 
not a component part of the Union, during the continuance 
of such rebellion, for the purpose of exercising any power, 
then it did prove that "Independence Hall was a madhouse 
from the 14th of May to the 17th of September, 1787; and 
that the madmen there succeeded in devising a framework of 
government embodying in it a larger number of separate and 
fatal instruments of self-slaughter than was ever combined in 
a government before, or than was ever dreamed by men who 
make Utopias, or by them who form governments in Bedlam." 



26o A Political History of Slavery 

The most deliberate acts of the government in all its 
departments during the war proceeded upon the assumption 
that these rebellious States had lost all the rights of States. 
And it was impossible to comprehend the action of Mr. John- 
son in appointing provisional Governors, in prescribing rules 
for altering or amending constitutions, except upon the as- 
sumption that these State constitutions and their governments 
had not revived on the cessation of hostilities so as to control 
the methods of their own amendment. The President had dealt 
with this great question in the view that these old State gov- 
ernments were so effectually overthrown that they did not 
come into force at the end of the war so as to furnish the basis 
of republican governments to the States ; and that it had be- 
come the business of the United States to guarantee such gov- 
ernments to them as were required by the fourth section of 
the fourth article of the Constitution. If the combined forces 
of the Constitution and of public law, the obvious dictates 
of reason, justice and common sense, and these enforced by 
the approval of repeated and unanimous judgments of the 
Supreme Court, could settle for our government any principle 
of its law, then was it established that organized rebellions 
were not "States," and that these eleven distinct treasons, jj 
which were organized into one and called "the Confederate 
States," had 710 powers or rights as States of the Union, nor 
had the people thereof. 

Could these rebellious States regain their powers and rights 
as States by the mere cessation of war and the determination 
of the rebel inhabitants to resume the powers of States; or 
was the general government entitled to take jurisdiction over 
the time and manner of their return? The latter was the ob- 
vious truth. Otherwise there was not an hour during the re- 
bellion when the powers of the government might not have 
been paralyzed simply by a cessation of hostilities and by 
Senators and Representatives taking their seats in the Con- 
gress. There was no escape from this conclusion : 

If the United States has no power to decide, as a great and 



Shellabarger's Analysis 261 

sovereign people acting through their government, what shall be a 
"State" in her high Union, and cannot determine when, out of the 
wreck and ruin of old States, have been formed new republican 
States, based upon the only foundations upon which a republican 
State of this Union can be built, that of the general consent and 
loyalty of its people, then indeed is your government not so much 
as a "rope of sand." It is a monster compelled by the organic law 
of its life to terminate that life by self-slaughter. But such is not 
the law of its life. 

Were not the new powers of government assumed by the 
rebellious States safe and fit? These were the stupendous 
facts on trial by the American Congress. By what standard 
of fitness, and what guaranties of safety, should Congress de- 
cide these facts on trial? By the standard described in lan- 
guage used by the President— "No State can be thoroughly 
organized which has not adopted irreversible guaranties for 
the rights of the freedmen." 

Let this noble utterance [said Mr. SheWsLbaTger^—irreverst'd/g 
guaranties for the rights of American citizens of every race and condi- 
tion — be written with pen of iron and point of diamond in your 
Constitution. Let it thus be made "irreversible" indeed, by the 
action of the State, in the only way it can be made irreversible; and 
then, to establish this and every other guaranty of the Constitution 
upon the only sure foundation of a free republic — the equality of 
the people and of the States — make, by the same organic law, every 
elector in the Union absolutely equal in his right of representation 
in that renovated Union, and I am content.' 

Both Congress and the executive were compromised by 
declarations made during the progress of the war, which each 
department found it convenient to disregard, now that the 
war was closed, in greater or less degree. In his famous 
despatch declining the insidious proposition of M. Drouyn de 
I'Huys to appoint commissioners to confer with commissioners 
of the insurgents, Mr. Seward remarked that the Congress 

' Cong. Globe, ist Sess., Thirty-ninth Cong., Jan., 1866. 



262 A Political History of Slavery 

furnished a constitutional forum for debates between the 
alienated parties; that seats were vacant, inviting Senators 
and Representatives "who may be constitutionally sent there 
from the States involved in the insurrection." 

If it be true, as has been almost universally assumed in the Northern 
States [said a distinguished statesman of Virginia a few days after 
the surrender of Lee], if it be true that the ordinances of secession 
were mere nullities and absolutely void, then the Southern States 
have never severed their connection with the United States — have 
never been out of the Union, and are therefore entitled frojn the 
motnent the war ceases, to resume their position as members of the 
Union. ' 

This argument proceeded on the basis that the Union was 
composed of indestructible States; that all of the acts of re- 
bellion were null and void ; that when the belligerent power 
fell, opposition governments fell also, the people resumed 
their sovereignty, and it was made their duty to re-establish 
social order. The Southern people generally, after the col- 
lapse of the Confederacy, assumed a passive attitude, prepared 
to accept whatever form of government might be imposed on 
them by their conquerors. But not so the people of Augusta, 
Virginia. They held that the rights which had remained in 
abeyance during a state of war were immediately revived in 
full force and vigor on the cessation of hostilities, and that on 
their recognizing the authority of the Constitution of the 
United States, they were under its aegis and entitled to par- 
ticipate in all the benefits of the national government. How 
far any individual may have forfeited his rights was a question 
to be determined later. But the people of Augusta felt they 
could safely assume this to be the true doctrine: That a State 
in its political capacity cannot commit treason. "A State as 
a political community cannot incur forfeitures. Treason can 
only be committed by individuals, and the penalties can be 
inflicted on individuals only." " This was the central point of 

' Speech of Alex. H. H. Stuart at a mass meeting of the people of Augusta, 
Ya., May 8, 1865. Pamphlet, p. II. ^ Ibid. 



Shellabarger's Analysis 263 

the voluminous debate in Congress. The argument of the 
minority of the Committee on Reconstruction, written by 
Reverdy Johnson in the following year, was little more than an 
elaboration of this theory. The constitutional power of Con- 
gress to "call forth the militia," was not to subjugate the State 
within whose limits there was insurrection and to extinguish 
it as a State, said the Johnson report, but to preserve it as such 
by subduing the rebellion, by acting on the individual persons 
engaged in it, and not on the State at all. And in support of 
this argument, the opinion of Judge Sprague in the Amy War- 
wick case ' was cited. The belief that the government after the 
rebellion was suppressed would have the rights of conquest — 
that a State and its inhabitants might be permanently divested 
of all political advantages, and treated as foreign territory con- 
quered by arms — Judge Sprague held to be a grave and 
dangerous error. No nation makes a conquest of its own 
territory. The nation acquires no new sovereignty by sup- 
pressing insurrection, but merely maintains its previous rights. 
This line of reasoning, which was followed by Mr. Ray- 
mond, called forth this comment from Mr. Shellabarger : 
Turned out of metaphysics into English, said he, every in- 
habitant of a State may, by treason, come to have no political 
rights or powers whatever as individuals except the right to 
be hanged ; but the same individuals en masse called a body 
politic or State have all pohtical rights and powers, and can 
govern this Union ! 

Now, a plain man would have difificulty in being able to see a 
living, acting, ruling State where there was no constitution, no 
court or law, and where there were no inhabitants, all these having 
been hanged for treason. Such a man would be dull enough to 
conclude that if you hanged for treason all the people required to 
make up the body politic called a State, the State would at least be 
in affliction. 

It was unfortunate for this distinction between the political 

" In the U. S. District Court of Massachusetts. 



264 A Political History of Slavery 

State and its people that it had frequently encountered the 
ordeal of the Supreme Court and been discarded by it. The 
distinction, said the court in the case of Penhallow et al. vs. 
Doane's Administrators/ is one 

I am not capable of comprehending. By a State forming a re- 
public, speaking of it as a moral person, I do not mean the Legisla- 
ture of the State, the executive of the State, or the judiciary, but 
all the citizens which compose that State, and are, if I may so 
express myself, integral parts of it; all together forming a body 
politic. 

And in the judgment of the court in the "Prize Cases" 
(2 Black, 635), the language used to describe the act of the 
Southern people is explicit : " In organizing this rebellion they 
have acted as States claiming to be sovereign over all persons 
and property within their respective limits." This view was 
again expressed by the court in December, 1865." 

From these various decisions Mr. Shellabarger deduced 
these propositions: The eleven States acted as States in 
organizing the rebellion. All their citizens, innocent and 
guilty, were thereby made "enemies of the United States." 
Though they became "enemies," that did not make them 
"foreign" States so as that when taken back the United 
States would become responsible for their debts. The court 
decided that the United States might exercise over the 
Southern people both "belligerent" and "sovereign" rights. 
As these States became "enemies' " territory, and all persons 
residing within it became "enemies of the United States," 
they could not at the same time have been a people having 
any political rights to govern in the Union, unless this Union 
could be governed by a body of people, each and all of whom 
were held by its law to be the "public enemies of the United 
States." 

In his highly interesting examination before the Recon- 

' 3 Dallas, 53. 

* 2 Wallace, 404. It was the unanimous opinion of the judges. 



Joint Committee on Reconstruction 265 

struction Committee Alexander H. Stephens expressed the 
opinion that, as the Congress of the United States did not 
consent to the withdrawal of the seceding States, those States 
had a continuous right under the Constitution of the United 
States, to be exercised so soon as they respectively made 
known their readiness to resume their former practical rela- 
tions with the federal government. They had lost none of 
their rights under the Constitution, as States, when their 
people abandoned their attempt to dissolve the Union. He 
did not believe Congress had the rightful power under the 
Constitution to impose any condition whatever as a condition 
precedent to the resumption by the eleven rebellious States 
^f their places as members of the Union.' The same objec- 
tion, of course, would apply to conditions exacted by the 
executive. It was further objected that until the States 
should be restored to their former relations with the United 
States, Congress had no right to tax them for the support of 
the government, and that all legislation affecting their inter- 
ests was, if not unconstitutional, at least unjustifiable and 
oppressive. 

It must not be forgotten [was the language of the report of the 
majority of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction "] that the people 
of those States, without justification or excuse, rose in insurrection 
against the United States. They deliberately abolished their State 
governments, so far as the same connected them politically with the 
Union, as members thereof under the Constitution. . . . Whether 
legally and constitutionally or not, they did, in fact, withdraw from 
the Union, and made themselves subjects of another government of 
their own creation, and they only yielded when, after a long and 
bloody and wasting war, they were compelled by utter exhaustion 
to lay down their arms; and this they did, not willingly, but declar- 
ing that they yielded because they could no longer resist, affording 
no evidence whatever of repentance for their crime, and expressing 
no regret except that they had no longer the power to continue the 
desperate struggle. . . . The people waging it [this war] were 

' Report cf Joint Committee on Reconstrttction. Testimony, p. 158, et seq. 
'Known as The Fesscnden Report. Ibid., p. x., et seq. 



I' 



266 A Political History of Slavery 

necessarily subject to all the rules which, by the law of nations, 
control a contest of that character, and to all the legitimate con- 
sequences following it. One of those consequences was that, 
within the limits prescribed by humanity, the conquered rebels were 
at the mercy of the conquerors; that a government thus outraged 
had a most perfect right to exact indemnity for the injuries done, 
and security against the recurrence of such outrages in the future, 
would seem too clear for dispute. What the nature of that security 
should be, what proof should be required of a return to allegiance, 
what time should elapse before a people thus demoralized should 
be restored in full to the enjoyment of political rights and privi- 
leges, are questions for the law-making power to decide, and that 
decision must depend on grave considerations of the public safety 
and the general welfare. 

The Johnson dissenting report denied the right of Congress 
to call in question the State governments formed under the 
auspices of the executive. Congress had no right to deter- 
mine whether they were legally formed or not. Were they 
of a republican form, was the only question the Congress had 
a right to consider. Under the Constitution Congress may 
admit new States, but a State once admitted ceases to be 
within its control, and can never again be brought within it. 
Therefore the Johnson theorists argued that when hostilities 
ceased, all political rights of rebellious communities were at 
once restored ; that the right of these people to be represented 
in Congress at any and all times, and to participate in the 
government of the country under all circumstances, admitted 
of neither question nor dispute. 

If this is indeed true [was the comment of the Fessenden Report], 
then is the government of the United States powerless for its own 
protection, and flagrant rebellion, carried to the extreme of civil war, 
is a pastime which any State may play at, not only certain that it can 
lose nothing in any event, but may even be the gainer by defeat. 
If rebellion succeeds, it accomplishes its purpose and destroys the 
government. If it fails the war has been barren of results, and the 
battle may be still fought out in the legislative halls of the country. 



Joint Committee on Reconstruction 267 

Treason, defeated in the field, has only to take possession of Con- 
gress and the Cabinet. 

To admit that a people who had defied the authority of the 
Union, who had refused to execute its laws, and abrogated 
every provision which gave them political rights within the 
Union, still retained through all the perfect and entire right 
to resume, at their own will and pleasure, all their privileges 
within the Union, and especially to participate in its govern- 
ment, and to control the conduct of its affairs, — to admit 
these propositions "would be to declare that treason is always 
master and loyalty a blunder. Such a principle is void by its 
very nature and essence, because inconsistent with the theory 
of government, and fatal to its very existence." ' The right 
to inquire into the legality of the State governments formed 
under the auspices of the President was afifirmed. The testi- 
mony taken proved that the constitutions formed had never 
been submitted to a vote of the people. The committee set 
forth the three following propositions, which formed the basis 
of the reconstruction legislation of Congress : 

That the States lately in rebellion were, at the close of the war, 
disorganized communities, without civil government and without 
constitutions or other forms, by virtue of which political relations 
could legally exist between them and the federal government. 

That Congress cannot be expected to recognize as valid the elec- 
tion of men from disorganized communities, which, from the very 
nature of the case, were unable to present their claim to represent- 
ation under those established and recognized rules, the observance 
of which has been hitherto required. 

That Congress would not be justified in admitting such com- 
munities to a participation in the government of the country without 
first providing such constitutional or other guaranties as will tend 
to secure the civil rights of all citizens of the Republic; a just 
equality of representation; protection against claims founded in 
rebellion and crime; a temporary exclusion from the right of suffrage 
to those who have actively participated in the effort to destroy the 

■ Fessenden Report, p. xii. 



268 A Political History of Slavery 

Union and the exclusion from positions of public trust of at least a 
portion of those whose crimes have proved them enemies to the 
Union, and unworthy of public confidence. 

Congress moved v^ith deliberation but unyieldingly in the 
work of securing such protection to the loyal people of the 
South as was possible through legislation. The questions 
were new and grave. There was disorganization, passion, 
pride and ignorance to deal with. There was the reaction 
which the antagonistic attitude of the President had invited, 
expressed in the freedmen's codes in many of the States, 
which had to be dealt with. This could be done effectually 
only by the destruction of the illegal governments which the 
President's plan had created. How should Congress proceed? 
The attitude of many leading citizens of the Southern States, 
who should have cooperated in the work of restoration, was 
defiant. "It were better," said one of these, "that Virginia 
should not legislate at all on this subject, than to do so under 
the direct and asserted authority of Congress." ' And so it 
came to pass that those who should have been helpful adopted 
a policy of "masterly inactivity." In this connection the fol- 
lowing letter from General Hayes to General Manning F. 
Force is of interest : 

Washington, D. C, March 17, 1866. 

Thanks for the items from Mississippi. I could argue with you 
on the wisdom and justice of what Congress is doing with our erring 
sisters if I knew exactly your points. The truth is, Congress has 
done next to nothing yet on that subject, and can give good reasons 
for not having done anything. The position held by the majority 
is this: The rebel States having gone into insurrection and lost their 
lawful State governments, it is for the law-making power of the 
nation to say whether such new State governments have been set 
up as ought to be recognized. Is not this sound ? Granting this, 
ought we to recognize any State government which does not under- 

' Argument of John H. Gilmer in the Senate of Virginia, Jan. 17, 1866. Pam- 
phlet, p. 8. 



The Civil Rights Bill 269 

take, at least, to afford adequate protection to Union people and 
freedmen ? And further, is there evidence showing such State 
governments except in Tennessee and, possibly, Arkansas ? 

Congress had already passed a bill "to protect all persons 
in the United States in their civil rights and furnish the means 
of their vindication," which on the 27th of March incurred 
the President's veto. This measure declared that all persons 
born in the United States and not subject to any foreign 
Power, excluding Indians not taxed, were citizens of the 
United States — thus by a clear definition settling a vexed 
question which had received conflicting judicial interpreta- 
tions. It declared that there should be no discrimination in 
civil rights or immunities among the inhabitants of any State 
or territory of the United States on account of race, color 
or previous condition of servitude; but the inhabitants of 
every race and color should have the same right to make and 
enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to 
inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold and convey real and per- 
sonal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws and 
proceedings for the security of person and property as was en- 
joyed by white citizens, and should be subject to like punish- 
ment, pains and penalties, and to none other, any law, statute 
or ordinance, regulation or custom, to the contrary notwith- 
standing. In a word, it secured to the enfranchised people 
the same civil rights, and made them liable to the same 
penalties, as fell to the lot of the whites. The United States 
District and Circuit Courts were opened to them, and all 
possible safeguards were provided to make this law effective. 

That any intelligent and philanthropic persons should object 
to such a beneficent measure— that they should favor a dis- 
crimination in the race of life against those more poorly en- 
dowed — might well excite astonishment. The testimony of 
slaveholders was, that the negroes were, as a class, humble, 
faithful, confiding, law-abiding. "Such has been their nature 
in the past; such is their nature now," is the language heard 
in the Senate of Virginia and elsewhere in 1866. Were it not 



270 A Political History of Slavery 

well, then, to build upon this nature and not to seek to de- 
grade it? The veto created general regret. The President 
had so often expressed a desire to secure to the freedmen the 
enjoyment of civil rights, that his approval had been assumed 
to be a matter of course. Senator Trumbull, the author of 
this bill, as well as of the measure to enlarge the powers of 
the Freedmen's Bureau, consulted the President freely before 
it was submitted to Congress and while it was passing through 
the various stages of legislation. Indeed, the bill was pro- 
posed to carry out what were supposed to be the views of the 
President, and the hope was expressed to him while it was 
under consideration in the House that if he had objections to 
any of its provisions he would make them known to its friends 
that they might be remedied. But he made no objection. 
He surprised them with a veto which widened the breach be- 
tween the executive and the legislature. 

The abusive language which Mr. Johnson early in the winter 
had applied to public men who refused to approve his policy 
had been overlooked. There were those who hoped for a 
restoration of cordial relations. Mr. Sherman made a con- 
ciliatory speech in January to promote that result. Therefore 
when the bill was returned to the Senate with a veto message, 
Mr. Trumbull said that the controversy which it gave rise to 
was one of the President's own seeking. It was made certain 
that he was determined to break with Congress and to go in 
search of new friends. It is possible that he believed that 
with the support of Mr. Seward and other Republican mem- 
bers of his Cabinet, he could carry with him the conservative 
Republicans and Democrats of the country, and found a new 
party which would be sufficiently powerful to revolutionize 
Congress. This was the desperate resolution of a pugnacious, 
wilful man. 

The extraordinary character of the veto message drew this 
comment from Senator Trumbull: "Gladly would I refrain 
from speaking of the spirit of this message, of the dangerous 
doctrines it promulgates, of the inconsistencies and contra- 
dictions of its author, of his encroachments upon the consti- 



The Civil Rights Bill 271 

tutional rights of Congress, of his assumption of unwarranted 
powers, which if persevered in and not checked by the people, 
must eventually lead to a subversion of the government and 
the destruction of liberty." What if this impassioned passage 
in the crushing arraignment of the President on the 4th of 
April, 1866, was employed to justify the ill-advised attempt 
to impeach Andrew Johnson two years later! The course of 
violent opposition to Congress which he had entered on was 
certainly persevered in to the end. While reading lectures 
to Congress for denying representation to the rebellious States, 
the President by his own fiat was breaking down the barriers 
of the State and making strides toward centralization. The 
Civil Rights Bill was passed over the veto by the requisite 
majority in each House, and thus became a law. Without 
this legislation, Mr. Trumbull remarked, the constitutional 
amendment proclaiming freedom to all the inhabitants of the 
land would prove a cheat and a delusion. Five Republican 
Senators — Mr. Cowan, Mr. Doolittle, Mr. Lane of Kansas,' 
Mr. Norton and Mr. Van Winkle — voted to sustain the Presi- 
dent's veto. This defection increased the excitement, and 
doubtless confirmed the President in his purpose to abandon 
those who had elevated him to power. The Union men who 
went with him found it necessary to reverse themselves. 
Reverdy Johnson, to whom fell the unwelcome task of defend- 
ing the veto, was involved in the most astounding incon- 
sistencies. In replying to Mr. Trumbull he declared that the 
opinion of Judge Curtis in the Dred Scott case, "that citizen- 
ship of the United States consequent upon birth is to depend 
upon the fact whether the Constitution and laws of the State 
made the party so born a citizen of the State," had never 
been questioned. A fatal blunder! The Senator himself, on 
the 30th of January preceding, had said: 

Slavery abolished, why are not the negroes just as much citizens as 

' It was said that Mr. Lane expressed regret for this vote, which separated 
him from the radical leaders, with whom he had uniformly acted. On the lith 
of July, while temporarily insane, he committed suicide. 



272 A Political History of Slavery 

they would have been had slavery never existed ? My opinion is 
that they become citizens, and I hold that opinion so strongly that 
I should consider it unnecessary to legislate on the subject at all as 
far as that class is concerned, but for the ruling of the Supreme 
Court [in the Dred Scott case]. 

And he went on to say that it was the duty of Congress to 
avoid the results of that decision, "by providing that these 
people, notwithstanding their African descent, shall be citizens 
of the United States now that they are free." And to perfect 
the Civil Rights Bill in accordance with his views of the re- 
sponsibility of Congress he voted for this proposition: "All 
persons born in the United States, and not subject to any 
foreign Power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby de- 
clared to be citizens of the United States without distinction 
of color." The discomfiture of the Maryland Senator when 
his record was rehearsed was greatly enjoyed by his fellow 
Senators.' The censure which the course of the dissident 
Senators invited expressed public sentiment in the Northern 
States. The Democratic convention of Pennsylvania on the 
5th of March thanked Senator Cowan for "his patriotic sup- 
port of the President's restoration policy," while two days 
later the Unionists in State convention earnestly requested 
him to resign as he had "disappointed the hopes and forfeited 
the confidence " of those to whom he owed his place. 

The passing disappointment and exasperation of partisans 
is less worthy of attention than the widespread feeling of 
anxiety lest the disagreement in the government should open 
the way for bringing about a combination of disloyal ele- 
ments sufficiently formidable to gain control of Congress. It 
was believed that such a result would seriously impair the 
national credit and prove otherwise disastrous. The duty 
plainly before Congress was to secure the public debt against 
the danger of repudiation through political changes; to pledge 
the faith of the government in recognition of the services of 

' Debate in the Senate, April 4th and 5th, and particularly the remarks of 
Senator Trumbull. Also newspaper correspondence of the day. 



The Fourteenth Amendment 273 

the soldiers and sailors who had offered their lives as a sacrifice 
for the Union ; to give adequate protection to the Southern 
loyalists, and to establish the principle in law of the equality 
of all classes. Various propositions were made for amending 
the Constitution, which received careful consideration in the 
Joint Committee on Reconstruction and in each House before 
such unanimity could be obtained as would insure final success. 

There was great diversity of opinion as to a new basis of 
representation. We have seen that the "Ohio idea " was to 
provide that negroes should be counted in making up the 
ratio of representation only in States where they were per- 
mitted to vote. The educational qualification, adopted in 
caucus of Ohio members on motion of General Hayes, was 
abandoned. It was strenuously opposed by Mr. Shellabarger, 
Senator Wilson and other influential leaders. Mr. Sumner 
stood stoutly by the principle of manhood suffrage. The 
proposition submitted by Mr. Stevens on the assembling of 
Congress — "that representation shall be apportioned among 
the States which may be within the Union according to their 
respective legal voters, and for this purpose none shall be 
named as legal voters who are not either natural-born citizens 
of the United States or naturalized foreigners " — did not gain 
strength when subjected to the crucial test of debate. The 
suffrage part of the Ohio plan, as we shall see, was finally 
adopted as the basis of the Fourteenth Amendment, On the 
8th of January, Mr. Blaine, in a brief speech, pointed out the 
serious defect of the proposition to make voters instead of 
population the basis of representation, and gave his support 
to the Ohio scheme.' 

On the 15th Mr. Conkling offered a resolution, which was 
referred to the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, proposing 

• Cong. Globe, ist Sess., Thirty-ninth Cong. Mr. Blaine proposed to amend 
clause three of section two, article one, of the Constitution, so as to make it read 
as follows : "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the 
several States . . . according to their respective numbers, which shall be de- 
termined by taking the whole number of persons except those whose political 
rights or privileges are denied or abridged by the constitution of any State on 
account of race or color." P. 141. 

VOL. II.— 18 



274 A Political History of Slavery 

an amendment in two forms, the second of which was in the 
following words: 

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the 
several States which may be included within this Union according 
to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of citizens 
of the United States: Provided, That whenever in any State, the 
elective franchise shall be denied or abridged on account of race 
or color, all persons of such race or color shall be excluded from 
the basis of representation.' 

This form was adopted substantially by the Reconstruction 
Committee in its first report, which finally failed of adoption. 
It is not necessary to follow the debate on it. The proposi- 
tion was open to the fatal objection, as pointed out by Jehu 
Baker of Illinois, that it left any State of the Union perfectly 
free to narrow her suffrage to any extent, by imposing property 
and other disqualifying tests and so strengthening her aris- 
tocratic power over the people, provided only that she steered 
clear of a test based on race or color. Mr. Shellabarger de- 
clared that the moral teaching of the clause offended the free 
and just spirit of the age, violated the foundation principle of 
our own government, and was intrinsically wrong. On motion 
of Mr. Lawrence, the proposed amendment was referred back 
to the committee. January 31st Mr. Stevens, from the Joint 
Committee on Reconstruction, reported the proposition in 
new form, the last clause of which provided that "whenever 
the elective franchise shall be denied or abridged in any State 
on account of race or color, the persons therein of such race 
or color shall be excluded from the basis of representation." 

This passed the House by a majority of almost three to one, 
but it failed in the Senate." Mr. Sumner opened the debate 
in an elaborate speech in opposition. Mr. Fessenden replied, 
sharply criticising the Massachusetts Senator for his impracti- 
cable views. Mr. Henderson of Missouri made a notable 

' Cong. Globe, p. 233. 

''■ The vote was yeas 25, nays 22. A two-thirds vote was necessary. 



The Fourteenth Amendment 275 

speech and moved the following as a substitute for the com- 
mittee's proposition : "No State, in prescribing the qualifica- 
tions requisite for electors therein, shall discriminate against 
any person on account of race or color." Few, however, 
were ready for such a radical disregard of prejudice. The 
Reconstruction Committee had before it a plan devised by 
Robert Dale Owen, which proposed to repeal all confiscation 
laws; to remove all disabilities in the way of holding office 
from all persons compromised by rebellion except those who 
were in the actual service of the United States at the time of 
their secession ; to restrict the basis of representation to 
suffrage until the 4th day of July, 1876, and which provided 
that after that date, the right of suffrage should be withheld 
from none on account of race, color or previous condition of 
servitude. The committee regarded this scheme favorably, 
but for reasons of political policy rejected it.' The Fourteenth 
Amendment as finally perfected, passed and sent to the Presi- 
dent and incorporated in the organic law is a measure of such 
importance in the political history of the time as to justify a 
careful consideration of its provisions, which are as follows: 

Section i. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, 
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United 
States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make 
or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities 
of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any 
person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor 
deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of 
the laws. 

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several 
States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole 
number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But 
when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for 
President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives 

' " The members of the States of New York, Illinois and Indiana decided that 
for fear of its influence on the pending elections, it would not be safe to incorpo- 
rate into the avowed policy of the party the idea of negro suffrage, even prospec- 
tively, at the end of ten years." — Wilson's Hise and Fall, vol. iii., p. 652. 



2y6 A Political History of Slavery 

in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the 
members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male 
inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citi- 
zens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for 
participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation 
therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such 
male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty- 
one years of age in such State. 

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in 
Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any 
office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, 
who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or 
as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State 
Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to 
support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged 
in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or com- 
fort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two- 
thirds of each house, remove such disability. 

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, 
authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions 
and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, 
shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any 
State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of 
insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for 
the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obliga- 
tions, and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appro- 
priate legislation, the provisions of this article. 

The second section was not satisfactory to those who 
thought Congress should enfranchise the colored people, and 
not leave it discretionary with the States. The votes taken in 
the Senate showed that ten Senators were of that opinion. 
"If Congress can decree equality in civil rights," said Sumner, 
"by the same reason, if not a fortiori, it can decree equality 
in political rights." The basis of representation was held to 
be a proposition to the whites of the South that, if they would 
agree to reduce representation, the colored people should be 
subject to their control. It was declared to be an act of 



The Fourteenth Amendment 277 

"barbarism " which struck at the very principle of democracy; 
a scheme of cold-blooded treachery and ingratitude to a people 
who had contributed nearly two hundred thousand soldiers to 
the armies of the Union." While it is true that the second 
section v/as a compromise, those who gave it their support 
undoubtedly believed that it would eventually work the en- 
franchisement of the freedmen in the States. There were 
members of the majority who believed that it would be unwise 
to take from the States the control of suffrage. A bold 
declaration in favor of colored suffrage would lose to the 
Union party the Northern States in whose constitutions the 
word " white " still held its place. It would lose to that party 
the control of the legislative department of government and 
leave uncompleted the work of making secure all that the 
loyal people had ventured in war. The reaction would prove 
fatal to the hopes of the radicals, who could not understand 
why the majority of the people of the country moved for- 
ward with hesitating steps. 

President Johnson had spoken of the proposed amendment 
with characteristic freedom. He did not believe it necessary 
in order to secure political rights. If, however, an amendment 
was to be made to the Constitution, changing the basis of 
representation and taxation, he knew of none better than a 
simple proposition embraced in a few lines, making in each 
State the number of qualified voters the basis of representa- 
tion, and the value of property the basis of direct taxation. 
An amendment of this kind would, in his opinion, place the 
basis of representation and direct taxation upon correct prin- 
ciples. It would remove from Congress all issues in reference 
to the political equality of the races. It would leave the 
States to determine absolutely the qualifications of their own 
voters with regard to color; and thus the number of Repre- 
sentatives to which they would be entitled in Congress would 
depend upon suffrage.' 

• Political JiecollecHotis, by George W. Julian, p. 272. Mr. Julian voted for 
the amendment. 

* Interview with Senator Dixon, of Connecticut. McPherson, 1866-7, ?• 51. 



278 A Political History of Slavery 

The amendment was ratified by three States while Congress 
was yet in session — Connecticut, New Hampshire and Ten- 
nessee. When intelligence reached the capital of the action 
of Tennessee, Mr. Bingham moved a substitute for the joint 
resolution already before the House relating to the status of 
that State, which declared that as the 

State of Tennessee has in good faith ratified the Fourteenth Amend- 
ment and has also shown to the satisfaction of Congress, by a proper 
spirit of obedience in the body of her people, her return to due 
allegiance to the government, laws and authority of the United 
States; therefore, be it resolved, that the State of Tennessee is 
hereby restored to her former, proper, practical relations to the 
Union, and is again entitled to be represented in Congress by Sena- 
tors and Representatives duly elected and qualified upon their taking 
the oaths of office required by existing laws. 

The resolution was adopted by 125 ayes to 12 noes. The nega- 
tive votes were cast by radicals. In the Senate which adopted 
the resolution on the 21st of July, the preamble was changed 
by inserting a clause declaring that "said State government 
can only be restored to its former political relations in the 
Union by the consent of the law-making power of the United 
States." To this change the House consented. The Presi- 
dent approved the resolution, but in a special message notified 
Congress that such approval was "not to be construed as an 
acknowledgment of the right of Congress to pass laws pre- 
liminary to the admission of duly qualified representatives 
from any of the States." 




k 



CHAPTER X 

THE SOUTH REJECTS THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT — THE 
RECONSTRUCTION ACT 

CONGRESS adjourned on the 28th of July, 1866.' Dur- 
ing the session a large amount of business legislation 
was completed. The question of a return to specie 
payments, involving a contraction of the currency and a fund- 
ing of the public debt in securities bearing a lower rate of 
interest, received some attention. Besides the ordinary ex- 
penses of the government provision would have to be made 
to take care of $1,201,890,607 of debt before the assembling 
of the Fortieth Congress.' The Secretary of the Treasury 
recommended that Congress declare that the compound-inter- 
est notes should cease to be a legal tender from the day of 
their maturity. Besides these notes he did not think that it 
would be necessary to retire more than one hundred or at 
most two hundred millions of United States notes to pro- 
duce the contraction necessary to place the business of the 

'Comment of Secretary Seward: "Congress has adjourned. Faction, al- 
though not entirely overthrown, has been held in check. Within the eight 
months that Congress has been in session, slavery has been extirpated throughout the 
United States. Peace has been completely restored and proclaimed in the Re- 
public, and one of the eleven States that endeavored to rush out of the Union has 
been completely restored ; while all the difficulty that remains, as to the ten others, 
is not whether they will cheerfully renew the allegiance, but whether the faithful 
shall be reconciled, and admit the recreants to return." — Seward at Washington, 
vol. iii., p. 333. 

' This amount included the 7-30 bonds, for which the government might issue 
5-20 bonds. 

279 



28o A Political History of Slavery 

country upon a stable basis. Every day that contraction was 
deferred the difficulty of preventing a financial collapse in- 
creased. The Secretary also asked for authority in his dis- 
cretion to issue bonds of the United States bearing interest 
at a rate not exceeding six per cent, and redeemable at the 
pleasure of the government, for the purpose of retiring not 
only the compound-interest notes, but the United States 
notes. 

Mr. Sherman strenuously opposed this plan to contract the 
currency. The desire of himself and others was to advance 
the legal tender notes nearer to par with coin, but not to with- 
draw them. It was believed that the rising credit of the 
United States would bring them to par without injustice to 
the debtor, whereas their rapid withdrawal would add to the 
burden of debts and cripple all forms of industry. A bill was 
passed and became a law, April 12, 1866, which gave to the 
Secretary discretionary power to issue bonds, but which 
limited the retirement of notes to ten millions of dollars within 
the first six months and four millions of dollars a month there- 
after. This authority to retire legal tenders proving ineffec- 
tive, it was subsequently withdrawn.' 

Meanwhile the political questions involved in reconstruction 
overshadowed all others. Two days after Congress adjourned 
the country was shocked by accounts of an act of atrocity in 
New Orleans, for which the mayor of that city was directly 
responsible. The legislative acts of Louisiana which estab- 
lished a system of slavery, and the wrongs done to the freed- 
men in the enforcement of labor contracts, were denounced 
by the loyal people. To remedy this condition of things it 
was proposed by those who, with the favor of Mr. Lincoln, 
formed the government of 1864 to remodel the constitution of 
the State, The convention which framed it and which had 
adjourned subject to the call of its president was reconvened 
by a proclamation issued by B. K. Howell, president pro 
tempore. But the consent of Governor Wells had been first 
obtained. The Lieutenant-Governor and Mayor John T. 

' Recollections of yohn Sher7nan, vol. i., p, 378, et seq. 



Violence at New Orleans 281 

Monroe looked upon this proposed action as revolutionary. 
The flame of partisan feeling was fanned by the open denun- 
ciations of these officials. A rumor was prevalent in Washing- 
ton before Congress adjourned that the convention was to be 
forcibly dispersed. It does not appear that the President took 
any action. General Baird was in command of the military 
force at New Orleans during the temporary absence of Gen- 
eral Sheridan. When Mayor Monroe informed him that it 
was his purpose to disperse the convention General Baird told 
him that it was a very grave step for the friends of the Presi- 
dent to take — to hang about his neck the responsibility of 
breaking up a convention sanctioned by the Governor, with- 
out knowing certainly that the President desired it. General 
Baird held his troops in readiness to move at a moment's 
notice, but he had the assurance that the peace would be pre- 
served. He was intentionally deceived. 

The convention assembled in the Mechanics' Institute at 
noon, July 30th. An hour later a procession of about one 
hundred colored men marched towards the hall, carrying an 
American flag. They had canes and every tenth man a pistol. 
As they crossed Canal Street there was trouble, and when they 
reached the Institute some brickbats were thrown by both 
sides. At this time there were from five to six hundred 
people in and around the hall. All of the company of colored 
men entered the hall with the flag, except about half a dozen. 
The police force of the city by concert appeared at the Insti- 
tute. One of the officers got into an altercation with a colored 
man. A shot was fired. Then the whole police force began 
an indiscriminate firing through the windows into the hall. 
The people inside displayed a white flag, whereupon the firing 
from the outside ceased. The police rushed into the building 
and opened an indiscriminate fire upon the audience until they 
had emptied their revolvers, when they retired. Having re- 
loaded their weapons, they returned and again fired into the 
peaceful and helpless mass of people. There was a desperate 
attempt to escape by the windows and door. The circle of 
policemen on the outside fired upon the fugitives. The mob 



2«2 



A Political History of Slavery 



in attendance also fired upon them. Those who were arrested 
were not safe. The wounded lying upon the ground were 
stabbed and their heads beaten with brickbats. The total 
casualties numbered 214. Forty were killed and forty-eight 
severely wounded.' General Baird took military possession 
of the city. A Committee of congress subsequently reported 
as follows: "This riotous attack upon the convention, with its 
terrible results of massacre and murder, was not an accident. 
It was the determined purpose of the mayor of the city of 
New Orleans to break up this convention by armed force." 

A fortnight later a convention to sustain the President was 
held in Philadelphia. The plan originated in the circle of 
Secretary Seward and friends in the closing days of June. 
The sunny disposition of this distinguished man kept him free 
of cabals and hopeful of effecting a reunion of the wisest men 
of all parties to bring about a permanent peace. 

"Y\\Q forces in the long run [said he] go with the virtues. The 
Christian precepts, although they may be denied, and refused for a 
time, ultimately are accepted by all men, equally in politics and 
elsewhere. Forgiveness to enemies — magnanimity to the conquered 
— equality to all. These are the maxims I am trying to inculcate 
upon the people. They resist; but the resistance will not continue.^ 

A great demonstration was to be made in the "City of 
Brotherly Love" on the 14th of August. The preparations 
were carefully made. A call signed by Mr. Doolittle and other 
well-known supporters of the administration invited loyal 
citizens of all of the States "favoring a speedy restoration of 
the Union " to assemble in convention at Philadelphia. The 
restoration, said Mr. Seward, was a national interest, the in- 
terest of the whole people. The convention might not succeed 
in inducing Congress to act, but it would be a lawful and 
patriotic attempt in the right direction.' This is represented 
as the real purpose of the originators of the movement. Per- 
haps there was an ulterior purpose in the minds of some who 

' Official report of General Baird. 
'July 25, 1866. Setvard at Washington. ^ Letter to Senator Doolittle. IHd. 



Philadelphia Union Convention 283 

possessed unusual skill in directing and controlling political 
forces. 

The official relations of those most active in this movement 
secured for it in the Republican press the title of the "Randall- 
bread-and-butter Convention." Henry J. Raymond relates 
that at a caucus of Republican Congressmen Thaddeus Stevens 
submitted a resolution denouncing the Philadelphia movement, 
and reading out of the party any one who had anything to do 
with it. "The radicals are terribly excited." And then he 
expresses the fear that giving the Democrats half the dele- 
gates would damage the movement. ' ' It allows the opposition 
to charge that the convention is designed to throw everything 
into Democratic hands.'" Raymond did not feel inclined to 
attend the convention, as "it seemed likely to be in the hands 
of the former rebels and their Copperhead associates, and to 
be used for purposes hostile to the Union party," of which he 
was not only a member, but in which he held an official posi- 
tion, as Chairman of the National Union Committee. Mr. 
Seward did not see any impropriety in Raymond's attending 
at Philadelphia, as it was not to be a party convention. "Of 
course," he added, "the convention would fall into the hands 
of Copperheads, if all our friends deserted it." Seward carried 
Raymond off to see the President, who was advised of the 
apprehended danger. The President said it was important 
that the right direction should be given to the convention. 
His sympathies were with the party which had carried the 
country through the war. That party ought to restore the 
Union, and although it ought not to repel Democrats willing 
to act with it and aid it, he did not wish the Democratic party 
to get control. He wanted Congress to restore the Union. 
He thought the action of the Philadelphia convention would 
exert a wholesome influence on the local conventions and on 
the nominations for Congress.' And it was decided that Ray- 
mond should attend and write the address. 

A glance at some of the newspapers of the day will throw 

' Letter to Thurlow Weed. Barnes's Life, vol. ii., p. 452. 
' Diary of Henry J. Raymond. 



284 A Political History of Slavery 

additional light on this political incident. The New York 
World distrusted the motive back of the call. The only point 
of interest on which new light was needed was the number 
of Republicans who endorsed the policy of the President, and 
the vigor with which they were willing to support it. It was 
known that the Northern Democratic party, and almost the 
entire voting population of the South, favored Mr. Johnson's 
policy. They did not need to make new professions. The 
World shrewdly counted upon the benefits of the President's 
services in disrupting the Union party. When the Democratic 
party should be revived and restored to power, there would be 
no further honor wasted on Andrew Johnson. On the other 
hand, the New York Herald favored the convention because it 
would bury the Democratic party out of sight — a party as 
dead as the old Whig party. Had not the Herald deXdiy&d the 
last rites of burial too long? A closer scrutiny of political 
events might have brought the conviction that President 
Johnson had failed to restore peace, but that he had succeeded 
as a resurrectionist in breathing life into the dry bones of the 
Democratic party lying in the Vale of Jehoshaphat. 

The jubilation of the Constitutional Union, the secessionists' 
organ, over the prospect of the downfall of "radicalism," 
and the advice to the Copperhead faction to send represent- 
atives to Philadelphia, moved the New York Times to remind 
the country that the Randall-Doolittle call was a request 
to send only wise, moderate, conservative men. The intent 
of the call was to develop the conservative elements of the 
Union party, and to bring them into active cooperation with 
all other conservative elements of both sections. While the 
terms applied alike to conservative Republicans and conserva- 
tive Democrats, they with equal force excluded Copperhead 
Democrats as well as the radical members of the Union party. 
It was evident that the Seward Republicans wanted to test 
the genuineness of Democratic professions. There was a 
pretty play of political tactics on both sides. While the 
Democratic members of Congress came to the rescue of the 
Seward men, and enjoined fellow Democrats to select "wise, 



Philadelphia Union Convention 285 

moderate conservative men" to represent them, they added 
that the convention was called " for great national purposes 
only." ' 

These Democratic Congressmen, who had been sustaining 
the President, professed to believe that the citadel of the 
liberties of the people was directly assailed, and that the 
future was dark unless the people came to the rescue. They 
had not been roused when eleven States rebelled and struck 
at the life of the Republic, because Abraham Lincoln was 
legally elected President ; but now when guaranties were de- 
manded that there should be no more attempts at secession, 
that life and property should be made secure, the public faith 
maintained, and all men made equal before the law, the Con- 
stitution was being trampled in the dust ! Governor Brownlow 
of Tennessee looked at the matter from a different point of 
view. In his message to the Legislature of his State, con- 
vened in extra session to consider the Fourteenth Amendment, 
he expressed the opinion of a Southern Unionist. He begged 
the members to remember that while most of them had been 
loyal to the United States government, they represented a 
State the most of whose people went into rebellion, raised one 
hundred and fifty-four regiments, and sent them to the field to 
fight the national government; levied war against the United 
States for four years, and were finally conquered and reduced 
to the condition of inhabitants of a subjugated province, 
wholly at the mercy of the conqueror. By the law of nations 
and the laws of war, the general government had an un- 
doubted right to prescribe terms to the State of Tennessee. 

These terms have been prescribed, and are now presented for your 
acceptance or rejection. I have every assurance that when they are 
accepted, your Senators and Representatives will be admitted to 



' An amusing incident occurred. Observing that the Blairs were en 
the new movement, ex-Governor Wall of New Jersey, notorious for his hostility 
to the government in the war, addressed a letter to Montgomery Blair endorsing a 
speech the latter had made, and expressing surprise that it had taken him so long 
to find out the purpose of the fanatical men who supported the war to put down 
the rebellion ! 



286 A Political History of Slavery 

their seats in Congress, and the State at once reclad with her long- 
lost rights. Are these terms reasonable ? For my own part, they 
seem to me but the decree of political justice and equity made 
necessary by the result of rebellion. 



Tennessee, loyal to the Union, was represented in the gov- 
ernment on an equality with her sister States, with the ex- 
clusive right to control her own domestic concerns, subject 
only to the Constitution of the United States. She found 
that her rights and dignity were unimpaired by the act of giv- 
ing the guaranties demanded by justice. It was different with 
the States dominated by the President. 

On the 4th of July thirty thousand people, many of whom 
had laid down their arms a year before, celebrated the day at 
Salem, Illinois. They were addressed by Generals Sherman 
and Logan, and by Governor Oglesby. Agitated by the 
threatening aspect of affairs, the celebration took on the color 
of a great political revival. The course of Congress was unani- 
mously and enthusiastically endorsed. The lesson of this 
and other similar demonstrations was not lost on the John- 
son convention of August 14th. Mr. Vallandigham and Mr. 
Wood, who attended, and received tickets of admission, were 
politely informed that their absence would be regarded as an 
evidence of patriotism. The hint was taken, but it was notice 
that the mantle of charity would not be used to cover those 
who had the courage to avow sentiments which others, more 
discreet, had cherished less openly. The delegates in attend- 
ance were citizens of worth, many of them men of distinction. 
The more conspicuous leaders were Messrs. Browning, Cowan, 
Doolittle, Alexander W. Randall, Reverdy Johnson, Mont- 
gomery Blair, Samuel J. Tilden, Cornelius Wendell, Charles 
Knapp and Congressman Hogan of Missouri. General John 
A. Dix was temporary chairman of the convention. Senator 
Doolittle, as permanent chairman, gave the tone to the pro- 
ceedings. The opening was spectacular. As the distinguished 
managers entered the wigwam (specially constructed for the 
occasion) in a body, the band played Hail Cohunbia. When 



i 



Philadelphia Union Convention 287 

most of the delegates were seated, the Chair announced that 
the delegates from Massachusetts and South Carolina "will 
now enter arm in arm." As the delegations, headed by ex- 
Speaker Orr and Major-General Couch, entered, they were re- 
ceived with enthusiastic cheers and the strains of the tune 
of Dixie. When the description of this incident was tele- 
graphed to Andrew Johnson, waiting expectant in the Ex- 
ecutive Mansion, he wept tears of joy. 

The Southern delegates in large part were men that formerly 
had not participated in political life. This was regarded as 
significant, "as showing that those who ruled before were 
looking to the President for restoration to power and not to 
the influence of true Union sentiment. The body, in a most 
important sense, was representative; not of the rebel majority 
in the South, it is true, but of that class which was formerly 
controlled by rebel leaders and is now seeking to disenthrall 
itself.'" 

The resolutions reported by Senator Cowan were patriotic, 
and committed the Democratic half of the convention to such 
Union sentiments as were denounced by the Chicago conven- 
tion in 1864, and by the leaders of the party before and after 
that date. The closing sentences of the fifth resolution were 
in these words: "No State or combination of States has the 
right to withdraw from the Union, or to exclude, through 
their action in Congress or otherwise, any other State or States 
from the Union. The Union of these States is perpetual." 
So said Washington when submitting the Constitution to the 
thirteen States in 1787. 

The resolution that the liberated slaves "should receive in 
common with all the inhabitants equal protection in every 
right of person and property," was the pledge of honorable 
men to see the end accomplished. It was what Congress was 
trying to secure through legislation. It was what Mr. John- 
son did not secure in his reconstruction ; it was what the 
Civil Rights Bill, which he vetoed, provided; it was what the 

' Correspondence of General Henry V. Boynton in Cincinnati Gazette, Sept. 
nth. 



288 A Political History of Slavery 

Democrats urged carried with it the right of suffrage.' Still 
something was gained in a public commitment to principles 
that the loyal men of the country had been contending for. 
There was an unfortunate lapse. The address of Mr. Ray- 
mond contained this passage, referring to the Congressional 
plan of reconstruction : 

No people has ever yet existed, whose loyalty and faith such treat- 
ment, long continued, would not alienate and impair, and the ten 
millions of Americans who live in the South would be unworthy 
citizens of a free country, degenerate sons of a heroic ancestry, 
unfit even to become the guardians of the rights and liberties be- 
queathed to us by the fathers and founders of this Republic, if 
they could accept with uncomplaining submissiveness the humilia- 
tion thus sought to be imposed upon them. 

This was received with enthusiastic manifestations. A re- 
reading of the passage was called for, and provisional Governor 
Perry of South Carolina moved the adoption of the address. 
The language quoted was strikingly like that heard in the 
South on the eve of the rebellion. One is not surprised, 
therefore, that it provoked the comment that "the address 
justifies and threatens another rebellion of the South, if Con- 
gress insists upon its terms."' President Johnson declared 

' The Cincinnati Gazette asked : " Are all these Southern members and 
Northern Democrats converted to Union lambs that they joyfully declare the 
Union indissoluble, slavery perpetually forbidden, the rebel debt repudiated, and 
the national debt sacred ; equal civil rights to the blacks and gratitude to the 
soldiers? None of them talk so at home. None of them feel so anywhere. 
But unless they can break the solid front of the Union party, the union of 
Northern and Southern confederates will still be in a hopeless minority. The only 
chance for them was to let the Johnson party control the convention, and give it 
the appearance of a Union movement, while the confederates gave it an appear- 
ance of numbers." 

*"It was this part of the address alone that excited any emotion in the con- 
vention." — Cincinnati Gazette. The Southern press regarded the resolutions re- 
lating to the doctrine of secession and the rebel debt as highly offensive to the 
Southern people. But as the movement might help to divide or defeat the Re- 
publicans, the offence could be condoned : Cf. Richmond Times, Aug. 20th ; the 
Petersburg Index, Charlottesville Chronicle and others. The New Orleans Times 
approved of all that was done at Philadelphia. 



Cabinet Changes 289 

to the gentlemen who delivered to him a copy of the address 
that it was "a second Declaration of Independence," but 
"Declarations," said the Richmond Enquirer, "will no more 
bind men than the green withes bound Samson, or than pack- 
thread will bind behemoth." 

It is evident that several members of the Cabinet under- 
stood the new movement to mean a revolution in Congress. 
They did not choose to follow in the way the President and 
the Secretary of State were driving. On the nth of July 
William Dennison, Postmaster-General, resigned, and was 
succeeded by Alexander W. Randall of Wisconsin. Mr. 
Dennison had brought his department to a high state of 
efificiency, and on his retiring the country lost the services of 
a public servant of the best type as regards character and fit- 
ness. He was a conservative Republican, and while differing 
with Mr. Chase retained his confidence and friendship. A 
few days later Mr. Lincoln's early friend, James Speed of 
Kentucky, resigned his post as Attorney-General, and was 
succeeded by Henry Stanbery, a distinguished Ohio jurist, 
who within a few years had become a resident of Kentucky. 
James Harlan of Iowa, Secretary of the Interior, also retired, 
somewhat later. His place was filled by the appointment of 
Orville H. Browning of Illinois, who had been much attached 
to Mr. Lincoln. The President could not have called to his 
Cabinet purer or more distinguished advisers than Messrs. 
Stanbery and Browning. Their ability had long been recog- 
nized. 

The sententious remark made by Mr. Stanbery in 1863, that 
the Constitution was made for the Union and not the Union 
for the Constitution, will be recalled. Now that the war was 
over, his Whig training and habits as a lawyer led him to act 
with caution. Mr. Browning was never quite reconciled to 
Mr. Lincoln's course during the war. He and Thomas Ewing 
drifted towards Democracy during the days of reconstruction. 
Each had a horror of radicalism. Mr. Ewing stated with great 
clearness the doctrine of the continued right of the rebellious 
States to representation in Congress. After setting forth the 



290 A Political History of Slavery 

proposition that the laws of the United States, enacted in 
pursuance of the Constitution, are permanent ; and that during 
the entire contest all of the States, notwithstanding their ordi- 
nances of secession, were in the Union, he added: 

It follows, then, as a necessary consequence, that even in the 
heat and violence of the rebellion, the States in which rebel violence 
most prevailed were each and all of them entitled to their repre- 
sentation in Congress, It cannot, therefore, be rationally contended 
that the States in which the rebellion has been suppressed, the 
ordinances of secession rescinded and annulled, and the power of 
the Union acknowledged, can be denied their representation, be- 
cause they have been for a time controlled by men in a state of 
revolt, since that very condition, while it existed, did not deprive 
them of the right of representation.' 

President Johnson wanted Congress to restore the Union, 
but he would first make Congress dance to his piping. Hence 
the campaign which began with the Philadelphia convention 
and ended with a speaking tour. The first public response 
of importance to the opening of the Johnson campaign was a 
grand Union meeting at Reading, Pennsylvania, August 22d. 
John W. Forney was the principal speaker. The state of 
feeling found expression in a resolution which referred to 
Andrew Johnson as "the man made President by J. Wilkes 
Booth." It declared the true intent of his policy to be 

to resurrect from oblivion and disgrace the Democratic party, which 
for its treasonable course during the war, was consigned' to the 
tomb of everlasting infamy and shame; and we believe that the 
success of said policy would turn back the wheels of progress a 
generation in our country's march to greatness and glory. 

The scenes of the Johnson convention were soon eclipsed 
by a political demonstration which occupied Philadelphia for 
five days, beginning on the 3d of September. The streets 
were made brilliant by the profuse display of the national flag 

' Letter to O. H. Browning, 



Southern Loyalist Convention 291 

and of flowers. The air resounded with the music of march- 
ing bands. There was an outpouring of popular enthusiasm. 
Speech-making, of course, occupied many hours and enter- 
tained countless thousands. Camp-fires were a feature beside 
which the heroes of battle-fields lingered, often until the dawn 
of another day. Southern loyalists had invited representatives 
of the North to meet them here for consultation. They be- 
lieved the course of the President was crushing out the loyal- 
ists whom it was Mr. Lincoln's policy to encourage and sustain. 
Prominent among those who appeared from the South were 
Governor A. J. Hamilton, George W. Paschal and Lorenzo 
Sherwood of Texas; Governor Brownlow, Joseph S. Fowler, 
General John Eaton, Horace Maynard, Barbour Lewis, 
Thomas H. Benton and A. W. Hawkins of Tennessee; ex- 
Attorney-General Speed and Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge of 
Kentucky; Governor Fletcher and Messrs Van Horn, Finck- 
lenberg, Gottschalk and Fox of Missouri; Thomas J. Durant 
and H. C. Warmoth of Louisiana; Governor Boreman, A. W. 
Campbell and Nathan Goff of West Virginia; George W. 
Somers, John Minor Betts, Daniel H. Hoge, Lucius H. 
Chandler and James M. Stewart of Virginia; Senator Cres- 
well, Francis Thomas and C. C. Fulton of Maryland ; G. W. 
Ashburn of Georgia; D. H. Bingham, and M. J. Safford of 
Alabama. The delegations from North Carolina and Virginia 
were large. 

Among the Northern delegates were Senators Wade, Trum- 
bull, Sumner, Wilson, Harlan, Lane, Williams, Howe, Morgan 
and Harris. Besides her Senators, Massachusetts sent Gov- 
ernor Bullock, General Butler and all her living ex-governors. 
Connecticut was similarly represented. Governor Morton was 
present from Indiana, and was accompanied by other distin- 
guished citizens. Carl Schurz and Senator Chandler repre- 
sented Michigan, The senior Senator of Ohio was accompanied 
by Generals Hayes, Schenck and Garfield; Judge Stanley 
Matthews and Frederick Hassaurek, the brilliant editor of the 
Cincinnati Volksblatt. Horace Greeley and John Jacob Astor 
attended from New York. Simon Cameron and representa- 



292 A Political History of Slavery 

tives from every Congressional district of Pennsylvania were 
present. 

The delegates from all the States first met in Independence 
Square and after speeches of welcome and congratulation, 
separated. The Southern delegates, who were convened in 
National Hall by themselves, were called to order by Mr. 
Durant. Ex-Attorney-General Speed was made permanent 
chairman. On account of his having been a member of the 
Cabinet of President Johnson as well as of that of the lamented 
Lincoln, the people listened to his remarks with keen interest. 
He spoke of Mr, Johnson as the "tyrant of the White House " 
who exacted abject submission to his commands, and of the 
loyal Congress as the bulwark of American liberty. He ad- 
jured the Southern delegates to take a firm stand. 

Speak the truth [said he] as you feel it, speak the truth as you 
know it, speak the truth as you love permanent peace, as you may 
hope to establish the institutions of this government so that our 
children and our children's children shall enjoy a peace we have 
not known. 

The address of the Southern convention was read by Mr. 
Creswell. It was in the form of an appeal from "the loyal 
men of the South to their fellow citizens of the United 
States," and was a terrible arraignment of the administration. 

If you fail us [it declared] we are more truly deserted and be- 
trayed than if the contest had been decided against us, for- in that 
case, even victorious slavery would have found profit in the speedy 
pardon of those who had been among its bravest foes. Unexpected 
perfidy in the highest place of the government, instantly followed 
by one who adds cruelty to ingratitude, and forgives the guilty as 
he proscribes the innocent, has stimulated the almost extinguished 
revenge of the beaten conspirators; and now the rebels who offered 
to yield everything to save their own lives, are seeking to consign 
us to bloody graves. Where we expected a benefactor, we find a 
persecutor. Having lost our champion we return to you, who can 
make Presidents and punish traitors. Our last hope under God is 



Southern Loyalist Convention 293 

the unity and firmness of the States that elected Abraham Lincoln 
and defeated Jefferson Davis. 

The best statement of our case is the appalling yet ungracious 
confession of Andrew Johnson, who, in savage hatred of his own 
record, proclaims his purpose to clothe four millions of traitors 
with the power to impoverish and degrade eight millions of loyal 
men. Our wrongs bear alike on all races, and our tyrants, un- 
checked by you, will award the same fate to white and black. We 
can remain as we are only as inferiors and victims. Till we are 
wholly rescued there is neither peace for you nor prosperity for us. 
We cannot better define at once our wrongs and our wants than 
by declaring that since Andrew Johnson affiliated with his early 
slanderers and our constant enemies, his hand has been laid heavily 
upon every earnest loyalist in the South. History, the just judg- 
ment of the present, and the certain confirmation of the future, 
invite and command us to declare that after neglecting his own 
remedies for restoring the Union, he has resorted to the weapons 
of traitors to bruise and beat down patriots; that after declaring 
that none but loyal men should govern the reconstructed South, 
he has practised upon the maxim that none but traitors shall rule; 
that every original Unionist in the South who stands fast to Andrew 
Johnson's covenants from 1861 to 1866 has been ostracised; that 
he has corrupted the local courts by offering premiums for the de- 
fiance of the laws of Congress, and by openly discouraging the 
observance of the oath against treason. 

That while refusing to punish one single conspicuous traitor, 
though great numbers have earned the penalty of death, more than 
one thousand of Union citizens have been murdered in cold blood 
since the surrender of Lee, and in no case have their assailants been 
brought to judgment; that in every State south of Mason and 
Dixon's line his policy has wrought the most deplorable conse- 
quences, social, moral and political. It has emboldened returned 
rebels to threaten civil war in Maryland, Missouri, West Virginia 
and Tennessee, unless the patriots who saved these States to the 
old flag surrendered before their arrogant demands. It has cor- 
rupted high State officials elected by Union men and sworn to 
enforce the laws against returned rebels, and made them the mere 
instruments of the authors of the rebellion. It has encouraged a 
new alienation between the sections, by impeding emigration to the 



294 A Political History of Slavery 

South, and has erected a formidable barrier against free and friendly- 
intercourse in the North and West. 

While declaring against the injustice of leaving eleven States 
unrepresented, Andrew Johnson has refused to authorize the liberal 
plan of Congress, simply because they have recognized the loyal 
majority and refused to perpetuate the traitor minority. 

That a system so barbarous should have culminated in the fright- 
ful riot of Memphis, and the still more appalling massacre of New 
Orleans was as natural as that a bloody war should flow from the 
teachings of John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis. Andrew John- 
son is responsible for all these unspeakable cruelties, and as he 
provoked so he justifies and applauds them, sending his agents and 
emissaries into this refined and patriotic metropolis to insist upon 
making his reckless policy a test upon a Christian people. 

Resolutions, fourteen in number, were read by Governor 
Hamilton of Texas. The one of greatest importance de- 
clared, "That the organizations in the unrepresented States, 
assuming to be governments, not having been legally estab- 
lished, are not legitimate governments until recognized by 
Congress." The resolutions and address undoubtedly exerted 
a powerful influence in keeping the whole North faithful to 
Congress. After the Northern convention had concluded 
its proceedings on the third day, there was held a monster 
mass meeting, which was addressed by several of the dis- 
tinguished delegates. Speeches, remarkable for their elo- 
quence, and calculated to excite the enthusiasm of the 
whole North, were made by Miss Anna Dickinson and Fred- 
erick Douglass. 

" The continued absence of ten States in Congress," 
the Republicans of New York in State convention declared, 
" is due to their refusal to adopt certain changes in the 
basis of representation and the equality of States in Con- 
gress. A demand to enter without is demanding increased po- 
litical power after the bloody attempt to dissolve the Union." 
This opinion was generally prevalent throughout the North. 
The people were resolute in sustaining Congress. The Union 
members of the Thirty-ninth Congress were generally renomi- 



Johnson's Speech-Making Tour 295 

nated for the Fortieth. When changes were made greater 
strength was gained. In Indiana Thomas N. Stillwell of the 
Eleventh District, who had supported the President, was re- 
jected and General John P. C. Shanks nominated in his stead. 
Like action was taken by the Republicans of the Eighth Ohio 
District, who nominated Cornelius S. Hamilton in place of 
James R. Hubbell. This was the only change by the Repub- 
licans of the State. 

The presidential excursion failed in its political purpose. It 
is inconceivable how personal friends, knowing the combative 
nature of Mr. Johnson, could have consented to a tour which 
involved speaking to all kinds of people at a time of such in- 
tense political excitement. The spectacle of the executive of 
the nation bandying words with a mob at Cleveland or St. 
Louis filled all good people with a sense of shame. The 
highest office in the Republic was brought into contempt. 
Mr. Johnson's Secretary of the Treasury in his Recollections, 
has vindicated him from the charge of intemperance, and set 
forth his claims as an executive of a high order of ability. 
His official papers are well written and dignified. In speech 
he was truly unfortunate. In tact he was utterly deficient. 
He was brave, and reckless when roused. 

Unfortunately for himself, such was his temperament that he 
could not restrain his disposition to repel by intemperate speeches 
the attacks that were made upon him. He seemed to forget what 
was due to his station — to be unmindful that he had been lifted out 
of the political arena in which he had been so long a combatant. 

The excursion party consisted of the President, Secretary 
Seward and other members of the Cabinet, General Grant, 
Admiral Farragut, Mr. Romero, the Mexican Minister — alto- 
gether a party of thirty or forty, of whom several were 
ladies. Great crowds of people met them everywhere and 
there was no lack of entertainment and cordial hospitality. 
Great curiosity was manifested by the people to get sight of 
the General of the army and the famous naval hero, but they 



296 A Political History of Slavery 

modestly kept in the background. The party arrived in New 
York on the 29th of August. The speech made by the Presi- 
dent in that city was a dignified defence of his policy, which 
was based on the doctrine that no State could secede. He 
referred in terms of severity to the policy of Congress, which 
practically assumed and declared that the government was 
dissolved and the States were out of the Union. Would the 
American people submit to this doctrine after having once 
declared that it had no justice or right? Were they prepared, 
after the immense amount of blood that had been shed, and 
after having accumulated a debt of over three thousand mil- 
lions of dollars, to continue this disrupted condition of the 
country? The Southern people had expressed a readiness to 
accept the term.s offered by the President. "Do we want to 
humiliate and degrade them, and tread them in the dust? I 
say this, I do not want them to come back into the Union a de- 
graded and debased people. I want them to come back with 
all their manhood ; then they are fit, and not without that, to 
be a part of the United States." These thoughts were elabo- 
rated. At Cleveland and elsewhere he was betrayed into great 
intemperance of speech by being charged with having deserted 
the party that elected him ; he even went so far as to declare 
that he cared not for dignity. At St. Louis, when wrought up 
to a high state of excitement, he made a defence of the New 
Orleans massacre. Every drop of blood that was shed, he de- 
clared, was upon the skirts of the radical Congress. 

There was a studied effort at each place to ally General 
Grant with the Johnson administration. "I thank God," said 
the President, alluding to the general in New York, "that if 
he is not in the field, militarily speaking, he is civilly in the 
field on the other side" — that is, in opposition to Congress. 
An attack of illness afforded General Grant an excuse for re- 
maining in Chicago. To a friend he remarked that he had 
become a member of the party at the President's request. 
Neither Mr. Seward nor any other person, he continued, could 
commit him to any set of political opinions. He was annoyed 
at the successive attempts made by Mr. Seward and others to 



Johnson's Speech-Making Tour 297 

announce to the people along the road that his political views 
were in harmony with those of Mr. Johnson.' The lack of 
soldier support was keenly felt by the administration. An 
attempt was made to secure it through a national convention 
called to meet in Cleveland on the 17th of September. A 
few well-known ofificers of the volunteer service attended. 
There were present Generals McClernand, Rousseau, Steed- 
man, Thomas Ewing, Jr., Denver and Gorman, and from the 
regular army. Generals Granger and Custer. The country was 
not impressed by this display. 

At Pittsburg on the 25th and 26th of September the volun- 
teer soldiers and sailors of the country gave expression to their 
political views. The attendance was very large; the proceed- 
ings impressive. A majority of the prominent ofificers of the 
convention were privates and non-commissioned officers. L. 
Edwin Dudley, a private soldier, was temporary chairman. 
General Jacob D. Cox, on being made permanent chairman, 
said : 

The citizen soldiery of the United States recognize the Congress 
of the United States as the representative government of the people. 
. . . We have expressed our faith that the proposition which 
has been made by Congress for the settlement of all difficulties in 
the country is not only a wise policy, but one so truly magnanimous 
that the whole world stood in wonder that a people could, under 
such circumstances, be so magnanimous to those whom they had 
conquered. And when we say we are ready to stand by the de- 
cision of Congress, we only say as soldiers that we follow the same 
flag and the same principles which we have followed during the war. 

The resolutions read by General Butler expressed this view. 
It was "unfortunate for the country that the propositions 
contained in the Fourteenth Amendment have not been re- 
ceived with the spirit of conciliation, clemency, and fraternal 
feeling in which they were offered, as they are the mildest 
terms ever granted to subdued rebels." This convention 
truly represented the spirit of the people. 

' Chicago Tribune. 



298 A Political History of Slavery 

In remarks attributed to Montgomery Blair, and in an edi- 
torial of the New York Times, before the Congressional elec- 
tions, many thought there lurked evidence of a revolutionary 
purpose, on the part of the administration, in a certain con- 
tingency. The case was put by the Times as follows : 

Suppose that members elected from the Southern States should 
meet in December, 1867, and be enough (added to Northern mem- 
bers who believe in their right to representation, and who would 
meet with them) to constitute a quorum; and suppose the Northern 
members who do not believe the South entitled to representation, 
and who would not meet with them, should meet by themselves, 
constituting less than a quorum of the whole number. The Presi- 
dent will be under the necessity of recognizing one or other of these 
bodies as the valid, constitutional House of Representatives. He 
must send his message to one or the other. He must sign bills 
passed by one or the other. And under the circumstances assumed, 
there can be very little doubt, in view of his known opinion on the 
subject, that President Johnson will recognize the numerical 
quorum as the only body authorized by the Constitution to make 
laws for the United States. The Senate on the contrary will recog- 
nize a majority of members from all the States but ten, even if they 
are a minority of the whole, as the real Congress, and as clothed 
with all the powers of legislation. Here certainly is danger of a 
collision of authority. 

The Richmond Dispatch thought this hope of the President 
a weak one. The people settled all doubt by giving to each 
House of Congress a majority of more than two-thirds opposed 
to the administration. First Maine and Vermont, and then 
the great October States — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and 
Iowa — condemned the administration by decisive majorities. 
In Pennsylvania, John W. Geary was elected Governor by a 
majority nearly as large as that received by Mr. Lincoln in 
1864. In Ohio, William Henry Smith was elected Secretary 
of State by a majority of forty-three thousand, and all but 
three Congressional districts were carried by the Unionists. 
The popular majority in the doubtful State of Indiana was 



The Elections of 1866 299 

nearly fifteen thousand. The Republicans secured a majority 
of thirty-two on joint ballot in the Legislature, which insured 
the election of Oliver P. Morton to the United States Senate. 
The Democrats succeeded in only three Congressional districts. 
In Iowa every district was carried and the popular majority 
was thirty-six thousand for the Republican State ticket. 
These early successes only rendered more certain the triumph 
of the Union party in November. In Connecticut General 
Joseph R. Hawley was elected Governor over James E. Eng- 
lish, the Democratic leader. New Jersey also went Republi- 
can. In New York Governor Fenton was re-elected by an 
increased majority, while two-thirds of the Congressional dis- 
tricts were carried by the Republicans. In West Virginia 
Governor Boreman was re-elected and three Republicans sent 
to Congress. Illinois elected John A. Logan Congressman- 
at-large by fifty-six thousand majority. Michigan sent a solid 
Republican delegation to Congress, while in Wisconsin the 
Democrats were successful in only one district. The returns 
from the Pacific coast States were equally emphatic in con- 
demnation of the administration. The net Union majority 
in nineteen States was 404,000 votes. 

It was believed that had the Democratic Johnson party 
succeeded in this election the Fourteenth Amendment to the 
Constitution would have been defeated, the Southern loyalists 
would have been persecuted, and the colored people subjected 
to discriminating civil codes and deprived of the means of 
education and advancement in civilization. Thus in ten States 
formerly given over to slavery we should have had a pariah 
class of population numbering about four millions — a condi- 
tion incompatible with the genius of republican government. 
From this evil the country was rescued by the solidarity of 
the loyal States. 

The President's message of the 3d of December was chiefly 
devoted to a r^sum^ of the acts of the executive relating to 
reconstruction, and of the record of the Union party from the 
beginning of the war. It was urged that the course of Con- 
gress in excluding representatives of the rebellious States 



300 A Political History of Slavery 

and in imposing conditions after peace had been declared was 
not only without warrant in the Constitution, but contravened 
the former declarations solemnly made. The criticism of the 
course of Congress was calm and dispassionate. Its style and 
method are the style and method of Seward, not of Johnson, 
Between these two there was agreement, and therefore it does 
not matter whose the hand that wrote the message. Unfor- 
tunately, the tone of conciliation did not enter into the acts of 
the President. When the message declared that the President 
knew of "no measure more imperatively demanded by every 
consideration of national interest, sound policy and equal 
justice, than the admission of loyal members from the now un- 
represented States," the sentiment found a response in the 
heart of every member of the legislature. The restoration of 
the States with loyal men to represent them and "equal jus- 
tice" open to all of their inhabitants was a consummation 
they devoutly wished. They could say with the executive that 
such a result would tend greatly to renew the confidence of 
the American people in the vigor and stability of their institu- 
tions; that "it would bind us more closely together as a na- 
tion, and enable us to show to the world the inherent and 
recuperative power of a government founded upon the will of 
the people and established upon the principles of liberty, 
justice and intelligence." 

If Congress had had the support of the President, other 
States would have been restored besides Tennessee. But the 
power and influence of the executive department were em- 
ployed to defeat restoration through Congress. The ten 
States promptly rejected the Fourteenth Amendment. There 
were intelligent Southerners, however, who doubted the wis- 
dom of the act rejecting the conditions of the Fourteenth 
Amendment. Governor Parsons of Alabama seems to have 
been one of these. He advised the President that the vote 
on the amendment in the Alabama Legislature might be re- 
considered, if assured that Congress would pass an enabling 
act admitting the State to representation. The reply of the 
President was in these words : 



The South Rejects Amendment 301 

What possible good can be obtained by reconsidering the con- 
stitutional amendment ? I know of none in the present posture of 
affairs, and I do not believe the people of the country will sustain 
any set of individuals in attempts to change the whole character of 
our government by enabling acts or otherwise. I believe, on the 
contrary, that they will eventually uphold all those who have patriot- 
ism and courage to stand by the Constitution and who place their 
confidence in the people. There should be no faltering on the part 
of those who are honest in a determination to sustain the several 
co-ordinate departments of the government in accordance with its 
original design. 

This correspondence was not given to the public, but came to 
light in investigations subsequently made.' The President 
resolved to override the legislative department of the govern- 
ment. 

The rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment by the ten un- 
represented States left Congress in a dilemma. An effort had 
been made to restore the rebellious States by cooperation 
with their people, and it had failed. They had been asked to 
agree to the proposition that every person born or naturalized 
in the United States was entitled to the equal protection of 
the laws in the enjoyment of life, liberty and property. 
They refused. They were asked to agree to equal represen- 
tation — to a reduction of representation so long as the vast 
colored population remained disfranchised. This left suf- 
frage under their control and left with them also the power to 
increase their votes in Congress and the electoral college at 
will. They refused. They were asked to accept as just and 
right the exclusion from ofifice of such citizens as had violated 
the oath to support the Constitution, by leaving their posi- 
tions and engaging in rebellion. This they refused, not- 
withstanding Congress retained the power to remove such 
disability. They were asked to affirm the validity of the public 
debt of the United States, authorized by law, and to renounce 
all purpose to pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of 
insurrection against the United States. This reasonable 

' McPherson, 1868. 



302 A Political History of Slavery 

condition met the fate of all the rest. There was a purpose to 
refuse all guaranties. Congress was no more unyielding than 
they. As it was certain that the contest with the President 
was to be a stubborn one, the first step taken was to limit the 
executive power in appointments to office and removals there- 
from. On the 3d of December Mr. Stevens brought the sub- 
ject to the attention of the House. After discussion in both 
branches the Tenure-of-Office Bill was perfected and passed. 
It provided in effect that the President should not remove 
from their places civil officers whose terms of service were not 
Hmited by law, without the advice and consent of the Senate 
of the United States. It was also provided that Cabinet of- 
ficers should hold their offices during the term of the Presi- 
dent who had appointed them, and for one month thereafter, 
subject to removal by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate. Officers suspended during a recess of the Senate 
were to be restored if the Senate failed to approve of such 
suspension. 

The President returned the bill unsigned, accompanied by a 
veto message, which doubtless was prepared by Attorney- 
General Stanbery. It is an admirable historical summary of 
the whole subject. It showed that the question presented by 
the bill had been "settled by construction, settled by prece- 
dent, settled by the practice of the government, and settled by 
statute." In the very beginning of the government it was 
affirmed by Congress that the power of removal was in the 
President without any cooperation of the Senate. This view, 
says Chancellor Kent, 

is supported by the weighty reason that the subordinate officers in 
the executive department ought to hold at the pleasure of the head 
of the department because he is invested generally with the execu- 
tive authority, and the participation in that authority by the Senate 
was an exception to a general principle and ought to be taken 
strictly. The President is the great responsible officer for the faith- 
ful execution of the law, and the power of removal was incidental to 
that duty and might often be requisite to fulfil it. 



The Tenure-of-Office Bill 303 

The bill became a law by receiving the requisite majority in 
each House. It proved fruitful of embarrassments, and is an 
illustration of the unwisdom of resorting to temporary ex- 
pedients in legislation. Having once been clothed with ex- 
traordinary power, the Senate did not fail to find a way to 
participate in the distribution of offices. "Senatorial cour- 
tesy " (dictation) became a part of our civil service system. 

Legislation for equal suffrage in the District of Columbia and 
in the territories prepared the way for a new departure in re- 
construction. In his veto message accompanying the return 
of the District of Columbia bill, the President said that it 
could not be urged that the proposed extension of suffrage in 
the District was necessary to enable persons of color to protect 
either their interests or rights. Their status was precisely the 
same as the status of people of color in Pennsylvania and 
Ohio. As a general rule, sound policy requires that the 
legislature should yield to the wishes of a people, when not 
inconsistent with the Constitution and the laws. At a special 
election held in Washington in December, 1865, in a vote of 
6556 only thirty-five ballots were cast for negro suffrage. If 
the question were one levying a tax on property, said Mr. Sher- 
man, in reply, or one affecting the people of the District alone, 
the Congress ought to defer to their wishes. But this was not 
the question. If legislative power should be conferred upon 
the people of the District, no authority would be given to 
them to say who should vote. It was peculiarly a question 
for Congress — the supreme legislative authority in the District 
— to determine. To say that the white people should vote 
for the black was simply saying that the black people had no 
rights whatever which the white people were bound to respect. 
The bill was passed over the veto and became a law on the 7th 
of January, 1867. An effort was made by Senator Willey of 
West Virginia to incorporate in the bill the qualification of 
intelligence, but the strenuous opposition of Mr. Wilson, who 
was the consistent champion of manhood suffrage, and of 
others, defeated it. They believed that there was an educat- 
ing and civilizing influence and a protective virtue in the ballot. 



304 A Political History of Slavery 

The bill for the admission of Nebraska, which failed at the 
previous session, was taken up on the 14th of December, on 
motion of Mr. Wade. Mr. Brown of Missouri offered an 
amendment in the form of a proviso, that the act should not 
take effect except upon the fundamental condition that within 
the State there should be no denial of the elective franchise or 
of any other right on account of color or race, but all persons 
should be equal before the law. Thereupon a debate sprang 
up which lasted until the holiday recess. The Ohio Senator 
insisted that it was unfair, after the people of Nebraska had 
complied with the enabling act of 1864, to make an additional 
condition. The right to fix the status of the elective franchise 
had thus far been left with the States. In the constitutional 
amendment passed at the previous session it was left even to 
the forfeited States to regulate it for themselves, the only re- 
striction being that they should not have political power for 
those of their population whom they excluded from the right 
of voting. Mr. Sumner was determined that the bill should 
not pass without a change in the suffrage requirement. After 
the recess his persistency was rewarded. The principle of im- 
partial suffrage was incorporated not only in the Nebraska bill, 
but also in the bill for the admission of Colorado. Both in- 
curred the presidential veto. The political policy of increasing 
the Republican majority in the Senate was not a sufificient jus- 
tification in the opinion of some Senators for passing over the 
veto the bill for the admission of Colorado, and it failed of a 
two-thirds vote. But the rapidly growing population of Ne- 
braska seemed to justify the admission of that territory into the 
Union of States. The argument of the veto message was the 
same as in all cases where Congress departed from precedents 
of the past in af^xing conditions. By the Brown amendment 
to the original bill, Nebraska could not be admitted except 
upon the fundamental condition that within the State there 
should be no denial of the elective franchise, or of any other 
right, to any person by reason of race or color, except Indians 
whose status was that of aliens. This, the President declared, 
was neither more nor less than the assertion of the right of 



Suffrage in the Territories 305 

Congress "to regulate the elective franchise of any State here- 
after to be admitted " — a condition in clear violation of the 
Constitution, under the provisions of which, from the very 
foundation of the government, each State had been left free 
to determine for itself the qualifications necessary for the 
exercise of suffrage within its limits. 

The defiant attitude of the South changed the relation of 
things. Driven to build upon new foundations, Congress de- 
termined to regard the rights of man, to extirpate caste from 
legislation, to give to the weak an equal chance with those 
more highly endowed. This was the spirit of the Declaration 
of Independence, for eighty years invoked for the exclusive 
benefit of the white man. Early in the session Mr. Sumner 
laid down the proposition that Congress should, in dealing 
with the rebellious States, see that new governments were 
fashioned "according to the requirements of a Christian com- 
monwealth, so that order, tranquillity, education and human 
rights should prevail within their borders." Congress moved 
forward, believing this to be their mission. The Senate re- 
sponded to the Nebraska veto of the President by taking up 
the House bill, which declared that in tne territories there 
should be no exclusion from the suffrage on account of color, 
and passing it without debate. The President allowed the 
bill to become a law by failing to return it. Thus, on the 
loth of January, 1867, the suffrage question, so far as States 
to be formed from territories were concerned, was removed 
from the forum of debate. 

It is perhaps unfortunate for the reputation of the Thirty- 
ninth Congress that it was influenced by its controversy with 
the President and popular clamor to adopt military rule, even 
temporarily, in dealing with contumacious States.' The legis- 
lature alone had the right to consider the problem. 

On the 6th of February, Mr. Stevens, from the Committee 
on Reconstruction, reported a bill with a preamble, which 

' It was generally believed that the only practical way to get rid of the illegal 
State governments formed by executive authority was to place the districts under 
military power. 



3o6 A Political History of Slavery 

declared that the pretended governments of the rebellious 
States, set up without the authority of Congress and without 
the sanction of the people, afforded no adequate protection for 
life or property, but countenanced and encouraged lawlessness 
and crime ; and that as it was necessary that peace and good 
order should be enforced in those States, until loyal State gov- 
ernments could be legally established, it was provided that they 
should be divided into military districts and made subject to 
the military authority of the United States. Virginia was to 
constitute the first district, North Carolina and South Carolina 
the second district, Georgia, Alabama and Florida the third dis- 
trict, Mississippi and Arkansas the fourth district, and Louisi- 
ana and Texas the fifth district. The General of the Army 
was to take charge of these districts, through his officers not 
below the rank of brigadier-general, who were to have the gen- 
eral supervision of the peace, with the power to allow civil tri- 
bunals to take jurisdiction and try offenders. If that was not 
sufficient in the officer's judgment, he was empowered to or- 
ganize military commissions. It was further declared that all 
legislative acts or judicial processes to prevent the proceedings 
of such tribunals, and all interference by the pretended State 
governments with the exercise of military authority, should be 
void and have no effect. The courts and judicial officers of 
the United States were forbidden to issue writs of habeas cor- 
pus except under certain restrictions, which further established 
the military authority over the people. Prompt trials were 
guaranteed to all persons arrested, cruel and unusual punish- 
ments were forbidden, and no sentence could be executed 
until it was approved by the officer in command of the district.' 
Mr. Brandagee of Connecticut followed Mr. Stevens in sup- 
port of the bill. It seemed the most appropriate plan yet sug- 
gested, the freest from constitutional objection, and the best 

' This measure took the place of a bill introduced by Mr. Stevens, without the 
sanction of a committee, and, by way of a substitute originally reported by the 
Committee on Reconstruction, of a bill reported from the Committee on the Ter- 
ritories by Mr. Ashley, and of all other propositions. It was the basis of the 
new order of reconstruction. 



Military Rule in the South 307 

calculated to accomplish those two master aims of reconstruc- 
tion: 

I. The gathering up of the fruits of our victories. 2. The res- 
toration of peace and union upon the only stable basis upon which 
peace and union can be restored — liberty to all, rights for all, and 
protection to all. 

It begins [reconstruction] at the point where General Grant left 
off the work, at Appomattox Court House, and it holds those re- 
volted communities in the grasp of war until the rebellion shall have 
laid down its spirit, as two years ago it formally laid down its arms. 

The bill was founded upon the indisputable law of nations. It 
was justified by the fact that not one single issue of the con- 
test had been settled, not a solitary irrepealable guaranty had 
been obtained and no protection secured to the loyal colored 
people who had enlisted in defence of the Union. 

The power to pass the bill, said Mr. Finck of Ohio, was 
claimed under the law of nations, and upon the doctrine of the 
right of the conquerors to take possession of and control con- 
quered territory. Certainly, no man would insult the intelli- 
gence of the American people by defending it upon any other 
principle. It was at war with the Constitution ; it was at war 
with every principle of free government. The people of those 
States who were to be subjected to this worse than despotism 
were the sons and daughters of men who helped to achieve our 
independence and establish free government in this country. 
They had committed a great wrong, but the speaker believed 
they were sincere in their desire to continue in the Union and 
share the blessings and burdens of a common government. 
To establish a real union they should be treated as friends 
and not as enemies, 

Mr. Bingham believed the House should make haste slowly^ 
and by amendment make the bill subject to as little objection 
as possible. He challenged any member to point to any statute 
passed by the Congress of the United States that by implica- 
tion or otherwise intimated the dogma of the chairman of the 
Committee on Reconstruction, that the ten insurrectionary 



3o8 A Political History of Slavery 

States were a foreign and conquered country. Every act 
asserted the contrary. It was undoubtedly true that these 
States remained disorganized States in the Union. It was un- 
doubtedly true that the government of the United States, by 
its own election, extended to those insurgents the rights of bel- 
ligerents; and it was also true that, by their rebellion, those 
insurgents failed to place themselves in a position to put those 
States out of the Union, or in the condition of foreign territory, 
or beyond the jurisdiction of the United States. They fully 
succeeded by their rebellion in overturning their previously 
existing State governments. That being the case, it followed 
from the premises that the legislative power of the govern- 
ment was exclusive within those States, and so would continue 
until the people thereof reorganized constitutional State gov- 
ernments, and the same should be recognized by Congress. 

Mr. Shellabarger said that if the state of facts assumed by 
the other side of the House — that there was peace in every 
sense of the word all over the Republic in the civil administra- 
tion of the law ; that the courts were open everywhere and re- 
dress for violence and wrong could be obtained — really existed, 
then the bill ought not to pass. The Constitution, by that 
strange wisdom which amounts to inspiration, had provided for 
the state of disorganization then existing. It lodged in the 
President or in Congress the right and duty to suspend the 
writ of habeas corpus. That was the bill in all its scope and 
effect, and nothing beyond that. The bill assumed that the 
Republic was in a condition of rebellion when the public safety 
required that the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus should 
be suspended because the courts were unable to administer 
the law. 

Mr. Raymond characterized the bill as a simple abnegation 
of all attempts for the time to protect the people in the 
Southern States by the ordinary exercise of civil authority. It 
clothed the officers of the army with complete, absolute, un- 
restricted power, to administer the affairs of those States ac- 
cording to their sovereign will and pleasure. In the absence 
of all statute law, they were to make the laws as well as to en- 



Military Rule in the South 309 

force them. There was nothing in the bill to specify what 
was the peace they were to maintain ; what were the crimes 
they were to punish ; what were the contracts they were to en- 
force. This was the most extreme measure that could be en- 
acted by Congress. Was there an emergency calling for such 
a law? He did not agree with Mr. Shellabarger that to sus- 
pend the writ of habeas corpus was all the bill contemplated. 
The proper course for Congress to take was to establish in the 
Southern States some government which would meet its ideas 
of justice and of right, and then send just as many troops as 
might be necessary to maintain the authority of that govern- 
ment and to enforce the laws it should enact. Mr. Raymond 
said he would prefer to the bill the organization of territorial 
governments, for then there would be at least an organized 
civil authority from which laws and regulations might ema- 
nate. The measure proposed by the committee was not in 
harmony with our institutions. It was not such a precedent 
as would secure respect for this nation and for this government 
anywhere on the face of the earth. It was the last resort of a 
decayed and dying republic. 

The ten sinful States, said Mr. Garfield, "had at last, with 
contempt and scorn, flung back in our teeth the magnanimous 
offer of a generous nation. They would not cooperate with 
us in building what they destroyed. We must remove the 
rubbish and build from the bottom." Mr. Kasson thought 
the bill too sweeping. Instead of erecting this great military 
power over people of some portions of the South, who were at 
peace and observing law and order, the rule should be so flexi- 
ble that martial law could be applied wherever law and order 
did not prevail. Mr. Boutwell declared that it was the vainest 
of delusions, the wildest of hopes, the most dangerous of as- 
pirations, to contemplate the reconstruction of civil govern- 

' ment until the rebel despotisms enthroned in power in those 

j ten States should be broken up. 

Mr. Blaine offered an amendment declaring that 
when any one of the late so-called Confederate States shall have 
given its assent to the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, 



3IO A Political History of Slavery 

and conformed its constitution and laws thereto in all respects; and 
when it shall have provided by its constitution that the elective 
franchise shall be enjoyed equally and impartially by all male citi- 
zens of the United States twenty-one years old and upward, without 
regard to race, color or previous condition of servitude, except such 
as may be disfranchised for participating in the late rebellion, or for 
felony at common law; and when said constitution shall have been 
submitted to the voters of said State as then defined, for ratification 
or rejection; and when the constitution, if ratified by the vote of 
the people of said State shall have been submitted to Congress for 
examination and approval, said State shall, if its constitution be 
approved by Congress, be declared entitled to representation in 
Congress, and Senators and Representatives shall be admitted 
therefrom on their taking the oath prescribed by law, and then and 
thereafter the preceding sections of this bill shall be inoperative 
in said State. 

Mr. Blaine remarked that the true interpretation of the elec- 
tion of 1866 was that, in addition to the proposed constitu- 
tional amendment, impartial suffrage should be the basis of 
reconstruction. Why not declare it so? Mr. Stevens, who 
always rode with whip and spur, declined to accept the amend- 
ment. A motion to refer the bill to the Judiciary Committee 
with instructions to report back the amendment, was defeated. 
The bill was then passed and sent up to the Senate. 

On the 14th of February the bill was taken up in the Sen- 
ate, when Mr. Williams of Oregon gave notice of his intention 
to propose the Blaine amendment. As he failed to do so, it 
was offered by Reverdy Johnson, who remarked that if the 
amendment should be adopted the bill would be less objec- 
tionable than in its original form. Mr. Wilson moved to 
amend the amendment so as to provide that all citizens should 
"possess the right to pursue all lawful avocations and business, 
to receive the equal benefits of the public schools, and to have 
the equal protection of all the rights of citizens of the United 
States in said States." After further debate on the amend- 
ments, it was agreed to lay them aside by common consent, 
that Mr. Sherman might offer a substitute for the entire bill. 



I 



Military Rule in the South 311 

The substitute reported by Mr. Sherman on the i6th made 
the preamble read as follows : 

Whereas no legal State governments or adequate protection for 
life or property now exist in the rebel States [naming the ten unrepre- 
sented States], and whereas it is necessary that peace and good order 
should be enforced in said States until loyal and republican State 
governments can be legally established. 

Mr. Buckalew asked if the meaning of the preamble was, 
that there was no government in existence in any one of these 
States which in point of law could take jurisdiction, through 
its courts or through its political authorities, of rights of per- 
son or property, or of any other matter pertaining to the ju- 
risdiction of a government within a State. 

The view, Mr. Sherman replied, was the same as that taken 
by the President in his proclamation of May, 1865, that the 
authorities of those States were overthrown by the act of re- 
bellion, precisely as in the case of the authority of a govern- 
ment being overthrown by the occupation of its territory by a 
hostile power. "That does not disturb the courts, or the 
sheriff, or the ordinary operations of the law. . . . But the 
legal State governments are the governments represented here 
in Congress. A legal State government is a government which 
forms a part of the United States." 

The first four sections of the bill, Mr. Sherman declared, 
contained nothing but what was embodied in existing laws. 
The States were divided into military districts and provision 
made to govern the acts of military commanders, as was done 
under President Johnson. The fifth section, which was the 
vital one, was as follows: 

That when the people of any one of said rebel States shall have 
formed a constitution of government in conformity with the Consti- 
tution of the United States in all respects, framed by a convention 
of delegates elected by the male citizens of said State twenty-one 
years old and upward, of whatever race, color or previous condi- 
tion of servitude, who have been resident in said State for one year 



312 A Political History of Slavery 

previous to the day of such election, except such as may be dis- 
franchised for participation in the rebellion, or for felony at com- 
mon law, and when such constitution shall provide that the elective 
franchise shall be enjoyed by all such persons as have the qualifica- 
tions herein stated for electors of delegates, and when such consti- 
tution shall be ratified by a majority of the persons voting on the 
question of ratification who are qualified as electors of delegates, 
and when such constitution shall have been submitted to Congress 
for examination and approval, and Congress shall have approved 
the same, and when said State by a vote of its Legislature elected 
under said constitution shall have adopted the amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States proposed by the Thirty-ninth 
Congress, and known as article fourteen, and when said article 
shall have become a part of the Constitution of the United States, 
said State shall be declared entitled to representation in Congress, 
and Senators and Representatives shall be admitted therefrom 
on their taking the oath prescribed by law, and then and there- 
after the preceding sections of this act shall be inoperative in said 
State. 

In this form the bill was passed by the Senate. In the 
House it incurred the bitter opposition of Messrs. Stevens and 
Boutvirell. The latter declared that the Sherman substitute 
proposed to reconstruct the State governments at once 
through the agency of disloyal men. The fifth section was in- 
corporated in the measure, Mr. Stevens declared, "that we 
may pledge this government in future to all the traitors in 
rebeldom, so that hereafter there shall be no escape from it, 
whatever may happen. . . . Pass this bill and you open the 
flood-gates of misery." Mr. Eldridge of Wisconsin, speaking 
for the Democrats, denounced the measure as most wicked 
and abominable. It was not sufficiently radical for Thaddeus 
Stevens; it was too radical for Mr. Eldridge, who thought all 
conditions wrong. 

Mr. Bingham in some heat exposed the animus of the mem- 
bers of the Reconstruction Committee who opposed the 
Sherman substitute. What was there in it, he asked, except 
general suffrage, that had not received the sanction of that 



I 



Military Rule in the South 313 

committee? Let the gentlemen answer that to their constitu- 
ents. Finally the House disagreed and asked for a conference 
committee. The Senate declined a conference, but sent the 
bill back to the House for that body to adopt such modifica- 
tions as would make it acceptable. Mr. Wilson of Iowa 
moved to agree to the amendment of the Senate with the fol- 
lowing amendment added thereto : 

Provided, That no person excluded from the privilege of holding 
office by said proposed amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States shall be eligible to election as a member of a conven- 
tion to frame a constitution for any of said rebel States; nor shall 
any such person vote for members of such convention. 

Mr. Shellabarger moved to add the following amendment, 
which became the sixth section of the bill : 

That until the people of said rebel States shall be admitted to 
representation in the Congress of the United States, any civil gov- 
ernments which may exist therein shall be deemed provisional only, 
and in all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United 
States at any time to abolish, modify, control or supersede the 
same. And in all elections to any office under such provisional 
governments, all persons shall be entitled to vote, and none others, 
who are entitled to vote under the provisions of the fifth section 
of this act; and no person shall be eligible to any office under any 
such provisional government who shall be disqualified from holding 
office under the provisions of the third article of said constitutional 
amendment. 

Thus amended, the Sherman substitute was approved by 
both Houses. It was vetoed by the President, but passed 
over the veto on the 2d of March, two days before the close of 
the Thirty-ninth Congress. The measure as finally approved 
was much less objectionable than the original proposition of 
the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. Though regarded 
by many as radical, it was, nevertheless, in entire harmony 
with the public sentiment of the North. As has been re- 
marked, it changed the political history of the United States. 



314 A Political History of Slavery 

The veto of the President presented the objections to such 
legislation with much force. It was based on two distinct 
grounds, the interference of Congress in matters strictly ap- 
pertaining to the reserved powers of the States, and the estab- 
lishment of military tribunals for the trial of citizens in times 
of peace. The people of ten States were to be placed under 
martial law at once. Before they could be relieved of it cer- 
tain conditions were to be fulfilled, including the formation of 
constitutions. The whole question thus remained open and 
unsettled, and must again occupy the attention of Congress. 
In the meantime agitation would continue to disturb all por- 
tions of the people. In subsequent veto messages relating to 
legislation supplementary to the act of March 2d, enacted by 
the Fortieth Congress, the President re-enforced these objec- 
tions by reference to the practical working of the plan adopted 
by Congress. The uncertainty of the clause as to disfranchise- 
ment, he declared, permitted the exclusion of the great body of 
the people from the polls and from all opportunity of expressing 
their own wishes, or voting for delegates who would faithfully 
reflect their sentiments. 

If ever the American citizen should be left to the free exercise of 
his own judgment, it is when he is engaged in the work of forming 
the fundamental law under which he is to live. . . . All this 
legislation proceeds upon the contrary assumption that the people 
of each of these States shall have no constitution except such as 
may be arbitrarily dictated by Congress, and formed under the 
restraint of military rule. 

This was hardly a fair statement of the intent of the act. The 
President considered only one class of citizens, the whites who 
had rebelled, while Congress considered those (except certain 
classes who had disregarded an oath), the loyal whites and the 
loyal blacks, as constituting the people. 

The States, the President continued, had existing constitu- 
tions framed in the accustomed way by the people. But 
Congress declared these were not "loyal and republican." Its 
standard of a republican constitution was one providing for 



Veto of Military Rule Bill 315 

suffrage without discrimination as to race, color or previous 
condition of servitude. 

Measured by such a standard, how few of the States now com- 
posing the Union have republican constitutions! If, in the exercise 
of the constitutional guaranty that Congress shall secure to every 
State a republican form of government, universal suffrage for blacks 
as well as whites is a sine qua non, the work of reconstruction may 
as well begin in Ohio as in Virginia, in Pennsylvania as in North 
Carolina. When I contemplate the millions of our fellow citizens 
of the South, with no alternative left but to impose upon themselves 
this fearful and untried experiment of complete negro enfranchise- 
ment — and white disfranchisement, it may be, almost as complete — 
or submit indefinitely to the rigor of martial law, without a single 
attribute of freemen, deprived of all the sacred guaranties of our 
federal Constitution, and threatened with even worse wrongs, if 
any worse are possible, it seems to me their condition is the most 
deplorable to which any people can be reduced. It is true that they 
have been engaged in rebellion and that their object being a sepa- 
ration of the States and a dissolution of the Union there was an 
obligation resting upon every loyal citizen to treat them as enemies, 
and to wage war against their cause. 

The nation saved, then was the "auspicious time to commence 
the work of reconciliation, ... to meet them in the spirit 
of charity and forgiveness and to conquer them even more 
effectually by the magnanimity of the nation than by the 
force of arms." ' 

The President in his zeal as an advocate leaves out of view 
the purpose of Congress to recognize the obligation of the na- 
tion to give ample protection to its wards — to four millions of 
loyal people whose condition had been made inexpressibly 
deplorable by the oppressive laws of these same State govern- 
ments, which he declared to be republican. The majority of the 
people of the North doubted the wisdom of exacting universal 
suffrage. The suggestion of Mr. Lincoln that it would be 

' Veto message of March 23, \^(ii.— Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 
vol. vi. 



3i6 A Political History of Slavery 

well to give the ballot to the blacks who could read and to the 
thousands who had served as Union soldiers met approval. 
But there was no disposition to go further. Hence the Four- 
teenth Amendment left it to the Southern States to fix the 
conditions of suffrage. Not until those States rejected that 
amendment by the advice of the President; not until all rea- 
sonable guaranties were refused, did the North make equality 
of suffrage a condition in reconstruction. The Fourteenth 
Amendment left the colored people at the mercy of the 
whites, without representation, subject to be taxed and gov- 
erned without a voice in the government. The Southern 
States having rejected it with manifestations that promised 
continued opposition, the reconstruction measures were de- 
cided upon. Congress, forced to choose between reconstructing 
the States upon a basis regarded as disloyal, and enfranchising 
the colored people, adopted the latter. 

Among the acts outside of the domain of partisan politics 
passed by the Thirty-ninth Congress, was one establishing a 
department of education, for the purpose of collecting facts 
and statistics showing the condition and progress of education 
in the States and territories, and of diffusing such information 
respecting the organization and management of schools and 
methods of teaching as should best promote the cause of ed- 
ucation throughout the country; also an act to establish a 
uniform system of bankruptcy throughout the United States. 

Doubt lest the proper execution of the Reconstruction Act 
should be hindered by interpretations of its provisions led to 
the enactment of a law requiring the "Fortieth Congress of 
the United States, and each succeeding Congress thereafter," 
to meet at twelve o'clock on the fourth day of March. Ac- 
cordingly, when the Thirty-ninth Congress was declared to be 
at an end, Vice-President Wade in the Senate and Edward 
McPherson, clerk in the other branch, called the Fortieth 
Congress to order. It may be remarked as evidencing how 
completely the leaders of the war period possessed the public 
confidence, that the choice of members of the Fortieth Con- 
gress was a re-election of the preceding Congress to a greater 



The Fortieth Congress 317 

degree than was ever before known. The membership of the 
House was but little changed. Schuyler Colfax was for the 
third time elected Speaker. In the Senate Simon Cameron of 
Pennsylvania succeeded Mr. Cowan. Roscoe Conkling, who 
had won distinction in the House, took the place of Ira 
Harris. Justin S. Morrill, who had entered the House with 
Mr. Sherman, now followed him to the Senate. Oliver P. Mor- 
ton entered upon his first term. Charles D. Drake of Missouri 
succeeded B. Gratz Brown. The most notable accessions to 
the House were from the ranks of the volunteer soldiers- 
General Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts, General Mor- 
ton C. Hunter of Indiana, General John A. Logan of Illinois, 
General Grenville M. Dodge of Iowa and General Cadwalader 
C. Washburn of Wisconsin. Generals Butler and Logan had 
been extreme Democrats before the war, and now brought to 
the support of the Republican party the same earnestness of 
purpose. The work of restoring the States under the plan of 
Congress proceeded so rapidly as to secure to Arkansas, 
Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana 
and Georgia representation in the Fortieth Congress, under 
acts passed June 22d and 25th, 1868. Georgia was not repre- 
sented in the Senate until a later date. 

It was the resolute purpose of the President to defeat the 
will of Congress expressed in the reconstruction acts. During 
the recess, the Attorney-General gave such interpretations of 
their provisions as were calculated to embarrass the military 
commanders in the discharge of their duties. This opposition 
invited more stringent legislation supplementary to the acts 
preceding, at the second session, which began July 3d. It gave 
to the General of the Army through the district commanders 
power to suspend or remove from office any officer holding 
under the authority of a State government. This power, of 
course, was to be exercised only in case of an officer refusing 
to discharge the duties of his office properly. Some such pro- 
vision was absolutely necessary to secure the successful admin- 
istration of the reconstruction acts. The President objected 
that the power thus conferred on a subordinate military officer 



3i8 A Political History of Slavery 

was one that all of the departments of the federal government 
had never dared to exercise. Congress adjourned on the 20th 
of July to meet again on the 21st of November. 

In the autumn elections the Republican party met with 
reverses. In Pennsylvania there was a falling off of 37,159 
votes, of which the Republicans lost 26,416 and the Democrats 
10,743, as compared with the election returns of 1865. The 
Republicans were defeated in New York, where the per- 
sonal influence of Secretary Seward was still considerable. 
But in that State and in Ohio there was local agitation oper- 
ating against the dominant party. A license law cost the 
Republicans thousands of votes in the large cities. Still the 
general result was influenced by the same cause that operated 
in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Anti-Slavery Standard, al- 
ways narrow and never in touch with the masses of the peo- 
ple, attributed the result to the "shiftless policy of dealing 
with the treacherous executive," and failure to confiscate 
large landed estates in the South for the benefit of the poor. 

The New York Evening Post held that the people intended 
to rebuke the Republicans for their faults and to bring them 
back to a moderate and common-sense policy. They had 
been called upon to restore the Union, to put the finances 
upon a stable, consistent, reasonable basis, so that business 
men might know what to look forward to; and to devise a 
system of taxation which should supply the wants of the 
Treasury, without interfering too much with the productive 
industry of the nation. They had accomplished neither suc- 
cessfully. The masses of the Republican party, the Times 
declared, were not content with the results of party action or 
the tendencies of the Congressional policy. "They have dis- 
turbed the country — not pacified it. . . . Public sentiment 
throughout the State is prepared to demand equal rights 
before the law for all men, without distinction of race or 
color; but it is not prepared to endorse measures of extreme 
and reckless fanaticism." The defeat was simply a lesson to 
admonish the party to be wiser, more discreet, less arbitrary 
and extreme in measures, less arrogant and overbearing in 



Republican Reverses in 1867 319 

tone. Similar views were expressed by the Cincinnati Gazette, 
which continued to sustain Congress. The New York World 
warned the Democrats not to regard their success as due to 
themselves, but to those Republicans who gave them the vic- 
tory. It advised the Democratic leaders to plant themselves 
upon the principles which recognized and secured the results 
of the war. 

The suggestion of the Herald that a new party should be 
formed under Grant called forth a notable and characteristic 
article from the pen of Horace Greeley, which attracted wide 
attention. The following passages show the spirit of the 
whole : 

The Republican ascendency having been designedly, purposely, 
broken down by professed Republicans, they are now busy telling 
us how it may be restored. All we have to do, in their view, is to 
say no more of Republican principles but to go it blind for General 
Grant as next President. We have an abiding conviction that our 
ablest and most worthy statesman is Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. 
And we hold conceded ability, wide civil experience and eminent 
private worth, qualities that the people appreciate and take pride 
in. . . . Let it be forever understood then, that our preference of 
Governor Chase is based on no dislike to General Grant, nor even 
on a low estimate of his abilities. We presume he has no judicious 
friend who would pronounce him equal in capacity or experience, as 
a civilian, to the Chief Justice; we trust no friend of the latter will 
fail to render the general a hearty support if he should be made the 
standard-bearer of Republican principles in the great struggle now 
opening. 

We can elect no Republican on the spontaneous combustion prin- 
ciple. The Republican party rests under two great and solemn 
obhgations. The first is to the freedmen; the second to the 
national creditors. The moment we assent to reconstruction on 
any basis which recognizes the black man as entitled to fewer rights 
than the white, we consent that every State shall be locked and 
chained to the car of our adversaries, as Kentucky and Maryland 
now are.' And to say that we are for manhood suffrage in the 

' The restoration of returned confederate soldiers to full citizenship in Kentucky 
and Marj'land buried the Unionists as effectually as if they had been exiled. 



320 A Political History of Slavery 

South, but not in the North, is to earn the loathing, contempt and 
derision alike of friends and foes. We have thus, thank God! no 
choice but to stand fast by our principles, our allies and the 
inalienable rights of man. 

This bugle call of the editor of the Tribune rallied the 
earnest Republicans of the country again to the work of com- 
pleting such legislation as the war had rendered necessary for 
the peace and security of the country and the vindication of 
the honor of the nation. They were opposed at every stage, 
as during the war, by the Democratic party. 

Meantime the work of reconstruction was progressing favor- 
ably. The administration and the political leaders of the 
South were united in an effort to defeat the return of the 
States on the basis of an extension of suffrage, or of reduced 
representation if extension should be refused by any State. 
General Longstreet, one of the greatest of the soldiers on the 
confederate side, declared that the military bill and the amend- 
ment bill were peace offerings, and should be accepted as such, 

The transformation is described in the following letter of ex-Attorney-General 
Speed, which, by the courtesy of Senator Sherman, I am permitted to make public : 

" Louisville, Aug. 6, 1866. 
" My Dear Sir : 

" I found a queer state of affairs in Kentucky. Jefferson Davis and R. E. 
Lee are the most popular men here that are now alive. Treason and rebellion are 
as rampant as in 1861. At all the Democratic meetings the names of Davis and 
Lee are greeted with uproarious applause. The names of Sherman and Grant are 
greeted with groans and hisses. The object of their meetings, avowed and un- 
disguised, is to make treason glorious and loyalty odious. God only knows what 
we are coming to. The Democratic or disloyal party has swallowed up the John- 
son Union men in Kentucky ; if the same is done at Philadelphia what is to be- 
come of the country ? Jefferson Davis will be President and R. E. Lee General 
if that party triumphs before the people, 

" The North has done a great work with the bayonet, now it must do a greater 
with the ballot. The triumph of the Democratic: party would inevitably result in 
repudiation and anarchy 

" What effect will the election in our State have in your State — will it encourage 
the Democrats and discourage the Republicans? Of course I am anxious, but I 
am hopeful. " I am, Sir, 

"Most truly yours, 

"James Speed. 

" To Hon. John Sherman." 



Advice of Longstreet and Others 321 

and that they should be made the starting point from which to 
meet future political issues. This advice was followed by very 
sensible comments on party alliances. 

Like other Southern men [he remarked], I naturally sought alli- 
ance with the Democratic party, merely because it was opposed to 
the Republican party. But as far as I can judge, there is nothing 
/ tangible about it, except the issues that were staked upon the war 
and lost. Finding nothing to take hold of except prejudice, which 
cannot be worked into good for any one, it is proper and right that 
I should seek some standpoint from which good may be done. 

If every one, he added, would meet the crisis with a proper 
appreciation of the condition and obligations of the South, the 
sun would rise on the morrow on a happy people. The fields 
would again begin to yield their increase, the railways and 
waterways would teem with abundant commerce, their towns 
and cities would resound with the tumult of trade, and the 
people would be reinvigorated by the blessings of Almighty 
God. But this was not what the politicians wanted. They 
preferred the storm of party warfare. As political passions 
were revived, the old intolerance returned and seized upon the 
press and society. General Longstreet was meeting with good 
success in business in New Orleans. On the day his letter was 
written a newspaper accused him of deserting his friends, of 
joining the enemy. The hue and cry was thus started and the 
entire pack joined in. Not one of the papers printed the let- 
ter, or attempted to refute its reasoning with arguments. 
That was not then an accepted method of dealing with differ- 
ences. An appeal to prejudice was more effective. The great 
lieutenant of General Lee was ostracised by society — was 
driven out of business. 

Albert G. Brown, who represented the State of Mississippi 
in the United States Senate for years with distinguished 
ability, declared that it was the duty of the intelligent white 
man to educate the colored man, to admit him, when sufifi- 
ciently instructed, to the right of voting, and as rapidly as 
possible to prepare him for a safe and rational enjoyment of 



322 A Political History of Slavery 

that equality before the law which, as a free man, he had a 
right to claim. Ex-Senator Mallory of Florida, General 
Wade Hampton and a few other educated gentlemen of the 
South, gave similar advice. If the policy they advised had 
been followed and cordial relations with the colored people 
had been established, there never would have been an opening 
for the political "carpet-bagger." Pride and intolerance car- 
ried the Southerners the wrong way, and mischief and misery 
and injustice came of it. "Above all things," said Governor 
Patton of Alabama, "we should discourage everything which 
may tend to generate antagonisms between white and colored 
voters." Such counsel was unheeded in the presence of a 
dominating force stimulated by passion. 

The President did nothing for peace. His will was directed 
to thwart reconstruction requiring guaranties. He disregarded 
the sentiment of the loyal people of the country who had sus- 
tained the government, and who had chosen him to represent 
them. He struck at their favorites. He sought to displace 
the Secretary of War. He hated Sheridan and Pope and 
Sickles, who, by successful administration of civil affairs in 
their districts, were preparing the way for a peaceful restora- 
tion of the States and the final triumph of Congress. He 
secured their removal.' He sought to use the great names of 
Grant and Thomas and Sherman to cloak his policy of vio- 
lence. In this he was foiled. Grant's poise of judgment and 
faithfulness at this period make him a striking figure in the 
presence of a man who, under the influence of passion, is 
madly beating the air. 

While reminding the President that under the tenure-of- 

' Changes were made in the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Military Dis- 
tricts. General Sickles was succeeded by General Canby, General Pope by 
General Meade, General Ord by General McDowell, General Sheridan by Gen- 
eral Hancock. Only in the Fifth District did the change make any difference 
in the policy of management. General Meade forbade the publication of inflam- 
matory appeals in Georgia and Alabama, and denounced assassination. General 
McDowell removed Governor Humphreys of Mississippi and appointed General 
Adelbert Ames as his successor. He also removed the Attorney-General. Poli- 
tics was made to play a part in Louisiana by General Hancock. 



Johnson's Continued Opposition 323 

office law the Secretary of War could not be removed with- 
out the consent of the Senate, the Secretary asked why action 
had not been taken when the Senate was in session. Mr. 
Johnson's friends never could account for his indecision at 
critical times in dealing with the case of Mr. Stanton. Before 
the passage of the act he could have made a change in the 
War Office at will. General Grant reminded him of the fact, 
which he well knew, that the act was intended specially to pro- 
tect the Secretary of War, in whom the country felt great con- 
fidence. With greater earnestness he remonstrated against the 
displacement of General Sheridan, who was "universally and 
deservedly beloved by the people who sustained this govern- 
ment through its trials, and feared by those who would still be 
enemies of the government." He had given satisfaction in 
his civil administration. Almost from the day he was ap- 
pointed it had been given out that he was to be removed — 
that the administration was dissatisfied with him. This had 
emboldened the opponents to the laws of Congress within his 
command to oppose him in every way in their power, and had 
rendered necessary measures which otherwise might never have 
been necessary.* "It is unmistakably the expressed wish of 
the country," said General Grant later, "that General Sheridan 
should not be removed from his present command. This is a 
republic where the will of the people is the law of the land. 
I beg that their voice may be heard." But Andrew Johnson 
had got beyond that. He had crossed the Rubicon. The re- 
moval of General Sheridan, continued Grant, would be "re- 
garded as an effort to defeat the laws of Congress." 

It will be interpreted by the unreconstructed element in the 
South, those who did all they could to break up this government 
by arms, and now wish to be the only element consulted as to the 
method of restoring order, as a triumph. It will embolden them to 
renewed opposition to the will of the loyal masses, believing that 
they have the executive with them. 

They confidently believed that Mr. Johnson would yet 

' Private letter to the President, August i, 1867. 



324 A Political History of Slavery 

triumph. The most violent methods were adopted to aid him. 
The Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel denounced in advance as 
"scalawags, traitors, Yankee emissaries and negroes " all white 
citizens in Georgia who might vote for or against a convention. 

Let conservatives [it advised] keep away from the polls and in- 
duce as many as possible of their friends and laborers to remain 
quietly at home, except in those districts where the whites have a 
majority and are running conservative candidates. In those dis- 
tricts no endorsement whatever should be placed on the bill. Vote 
simply for delegates and say nothing about convention. 

Thus they were opposed to everything which did not certainly 
promise to give them control. The result was the immediate 
loss of all control. Disappointed in the successful calling of 
the convention/ and in the liberality of the constitution 
framed, they resorted to violence. G. W. Ashburn of Co- 
lumbus, who had had the courage and independence to at- 
tend the Philadelphia convention of Southern loyalists, and 
had served as a member of the State constitutional convention, 
was assassinated. Such crimes became frequent throughout 
the Gulf States. 

It is well not to overlook the unhappy condition of the 
South. The people were poor. They had not the means to 
venture in new enterprises, nor to restore and efficiently culti- 
vate the plantations. Labor had not been readjusted to the 
new conditions. The harsh and unjust regulations adopted in 
the different States through the mistaken belief that the negro 
would not work unless driven by the lash or "pains and pen- 
alties," erected a wall between the proprietors of the land and 
the laborers. Disasters resulted from this policy. Wrongs, 
even crimes, resulted from it. The crop of 1866 was a failure, 
and that of 1867 unsatisfactory. Men became discouraged. 
Their training unfitted them for hard toil. It is, therefore, 
not singular that they charged up to the account of the North 

' In Georgia iro,OO0 votes were cast on the question of calling a convention. 
Of these 30,000 were whites. It was carried by over 20,000 majority. 



Condition of the South 325 

a considerable share of their difficulties, and set down noth- 
ing to their own pride, intolerance and want of experience. 
The following letter from the most widely known author of 
the South addressed to a lady in the North gives a doleful 
picture of the situation: 

Charleston, July 2, 1867. 
My Dear Madam: 

It is difficult to explain the miserable condition of this country or 
give you any adequate idea of its distress. Enough that one-half of 
the population are always now on the eve of starvation. If you will 
only keep in mind that the labor and capital of the South were 
blended and that both have been destroyed; that the laborer will 
not work and that there is no capital left; that nobody has any 
money; that the crops utterly failed last year, and no planter had 
any produce to sell; that money can only be borrowed at an interest 
varying between three and five per cent, per month; that in order 
to get this money even at these exorbitant rates the planter is re- 
quired to mortgage not only the growing crop but the land itself; 
you will readily conceive that the country is irretrievably ruined, 
doomed without hope of redemption and without any prospect in 
the future. The politics of the country, even were there any hopes 
of a return, in some degree, of pecuniary prosperity, would suffice to 
kill them, and nothing now remains to our people but turbid lives in 
desolation, to end at last in a general massacre. Enough on this 

head. You need not doubt that Mr. M and Mr. H are 

both ruined. This is the universal history with few exceptions. If 

your Mr. M be the gentleman I suspect, of Barnwell, he was 

before the war a man of wealth with a fine plantation and a new and 
splendid dwelling. The dwelling was destroyed like every other 
fine one in the track of Sherman's army. He has little left him but 
his land and his manhood. This gentleman would, no doubt, be 
pleased to hear from you. Of the distress prevailing here no lan- 
guage can give you an adequate idea. Believe the worst. There 
is no exaggeration in any of the accounts you hear. 
Very truly and respectfully, 

Your ob't servant, 

W. GiLMORE SiMMS.' 
^ MS. letter. 



326 A Political History of Slavery 

When Congress convened on the 2d of December the full 
measure of the President's hostility was understood. His an- 
nual message was an elaborate plea in justification of his 
efforts to thwart the will of Congress in reconstruction. It 
was more than that. It was an appeal to the Southern ex- 
tremists to continue their resistance; an appeal to the mer- 
chants of the North to coerce the national legislature into an 
abandonment of its attempt to secure the fruits of the war; 
an appeal to the prejudices of the dominant white race against 
the inferior and dependent black race. It even attempted by 
an exaggerated view of a country desolated by unfriendly 
legislation and the cost of holding it in subjection by the mili- 
tary arm of the government to alarm the public creditors and 
to impair the value of our securities. It imputed to Congress 
motives that never had an existence. 

The system of measures established by these acts of Congress [the 
President declared] does totally subvert and destroy the form as 
well as the substance of republican government in the ten States to 
which they apply. It binds them hand and foot in absolute slavery, 
and subjects them to a strange and hostile power, more unlimited 
and more likely to be abused than any other now known among 
civilized men. It tramples down all those rights in which the 
essence of liberty consists, and which a free government is always 
most careful to protect. ... It has the effect of a bill of 
attainder or bill of pains and penalties, not upon a few individuals, 
but upon whole masses, including the millions who inhabit the sub- 
ject States, and even their unborn children. 

And yet Congress through the district commanders had not 
invaded the constitutional rights of the States, or invaded the 
personal liberty of the citizen, to a greater degree than the 
President through his district commanders and provisional 
Governors. In both cases obstructive local officers had been 
removed, in one case by the fiat of the executive, in the other 
by the fiat of the legislature. There was this difference : The 
efforts of the executive were directed to the establishment of 
civil government for the benefit of a portion of the inhabi- 






Johnson's Third Annual Message 327 

tants; the legislature took into account the whole population. 
The executive imposed conditions on the States, but failed to 
take security for the future peace. This omission Congress 
attempted to supply. If conditions in one case were uncon- 
stitutional and oppressive, so were they in the other. The 
acts of the President after his veto of the civil rights bill did 
not conform to his declaration that he had "no desire to save 
from the proper and just consequences of their great crime 
those who engaged in rebellion against the government." 
Everywhere he struck down those who had been loyal to the 
Union during the rebellion, and exalted those who had sought 
to take the life of the nation. He ignored the facts of seces- 
sion, the overthrow of governments, the loss of life, the des- 
truction of property, the debt incurred in vindicating national 
authority. The failure of rebellion involved no penalty. 
Such was the logic of his acts.' 

The President, assuming that Congress designed to put the 
Southern States wholly under the control of negroes, pro- 
ceeded to argue the incompatibility of the white and black 
races, and the tendency of the latter when unrestrained to re- 
lapse into barbarism. This prepares the reader for the declara- 
tion that, "of all the dangers which our nation has yet 
encountered, none are equal to those which must result from 
the success of the effort now making to Africanize the half of 
our country." To maintain these governments would require 
a standing army, and probably more than two hundred mil- 
lions of dollars per annum. Would not the public credit be 
injuriously affected by a system of measures like this? Once 
let the conviction be firmly fixed in the public mind that the 
loyal people of the country created the debt not to hold States 

' In carrying out the policy of the President in Louisiana, General Hancock 
restored A. Cazabat, who had been removed from the office of judge by General 
Sheridan for his obstructive disloyalty. The registers had been instructed in their 
duties, and had received from General Sheridan memoranda of disqualifications. 
These -were such as virere prescribed by the reconstruction acts. General Hancock 
set them aside and told the registers to be guided by their own interpretation of 
the laws. He restored as far as possible the control of civil affairs to the State 
and local officers. 



328 A Political History of Slavery 

in the Union, as the taxpayers were led to suppose, but to 
expel them forever from it and hand them over to be governed 
by negroes, would not the moral duty to pay it seem less 
clear? His thought is how to raise up the most formidable 
antagonisms to confront and threaten Congress and to terror- 
ize the loyal majority supporting that body. 

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which 
Congress asked the rebellious States to ratify as evidence of 
good faith, and to accept as a rule of action for their Senators 
and Representatives when admitted to their seats, contained 
the following section : 

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized 
by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and 
bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall 
not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State 
shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insur- 
rection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the 
loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations 
and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Congress adopted this method of giving confidence to the 
creditors of the nation and stability to the government: it 
proposed to make the obligation to pay the debt a part of the 
fundamental law, and to put its repudiation beyond the power 
of a political party temporarily in control of the government. 
The proposition incurred the veto and personal opposition of 
the President. Ten States rejected it at his bidding. But the 
legislative department remained firm of purpose, and secured 
the adoption of this just amendment. Before the close of 
June, 1868, all of the so-called Confederate States except Vir- 
ginia, Mississippi and Texas were represented in Congress and 
thus restored to their proper relations to the Union.' This 
was accomplished without the approval of the President. 
Pending the restoration of these States, the reactionary Demo- 
cratic Legislatures of New Jersey and Ohio passed resolutions 

'All of the Senators and all of the Representatives except two from these 
States were Republican ; about one-half were natives of the South, 



Fourteenth Amendment Adopted 329 

withdrawing the consent of those States to the amendment, 
which were held to be "irregular and invalid, and therefore 
ineffectual." ' There was a feeling of relief when on the 20th 
of July Secretary Seward ofificially certified to the facts and 
declared that (if the ratifying resolutions of Ohio and New 
Jersey were deemed as remaining in full force and effect) the 
amendment had become valid to all intents and purposes, as a 
part of the Constitution of the United States. 

' Seward's official announcement. 




■^ 


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CHAPTER XI 

THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON— THE ELECTION 
OF 1868 



THE year 1867 witnessed the departure of the French army 
from Mexico, the capture of Prince Maximilian, Mejia 
and Miramon, after a gallant defence, at Queretaro, and 
the final overthrow of the ill-starred Empire of Mexico. Its 
fate was sealed when the authority of the government of the 
United States became paramount. M. Thiers and other lib- 
eral statesmen of France had boldly attacked a policy which 
annually sunk vast sums in keeping a monarch upon a throne 
in Mexico against the will of the people of that country. 
They declared that the jealousy of the United States had been 
aroused and a day of humiliation for the power of France 
would soon come. It came when the Southern confederacy 
fell. The presence of General Sheridan on the Rio Grande 
was a hint Napoleon III. understood. He promptly made an 
agreement with our government for the withdrawal of his 
troops, the last of whom were to depart in November, 1867. 
The abandonment of the party he had raised up without first 
exacting of Juarez conditions for their protection was an act 
of base treachery. Maximilian determined to share the for- 
tunes of his partisans. It was a useless sacrifice, but an act of 
bravery which won him the respect and sympathy of mankind. 
The good offices of our government were solicited in his be- 
half by Austria, France and England. Secretary Seward was 
unable to induce the triumphant republicans of Mexico to 
earn the good will of those countries by an act of clemency. 

330 



Downfall of Mexican Empire 331 

The unfortunate Prince and the generals Mejia and Miramon 
were tried by a military commission and condemned. On a 
beautiful summer day — the 19th of June — they were executed, 
the Emperor with his face to the deadly rifles, as an act of 
grace to a brave man.' 

The civilized world denounced this murderous deed and held 
the Emperor of France not guiltless. But in the lonely castle 
of Miramar another victim of his ambitious policy was pining 
in helpless madness — a noble and devoted wife, the Empress 
Charlotte. When word reached Mexico that Napoleon had 
promised the United States to withdraw his troops from Mexi- 
can territory, the Empress, unattended, crossed the Atlantic 
to attempt to secure a revocation of the order. With tears 
and entreaties she besought Napoleon to vindicate his honor 
by continuing to support the ruler he had given to the Mexi- 
cans. Failing in Paris, the Empress Charlotte travelled to 
Rome to secure the help of the Pontiff. She repeated her 
tale of the ingratitude and treachery of the great. But the 
head of the Church no longer controlled the destiny of states. 
He gave such spiritual consolation as he could and dismissed 
the lady. Deserted by the Emperors of France and Austria, 
there was no power to interpose between her husband and his 
fate. Under the strain her reason gave way, and the castle of 
Miramar became the living tomb of the Empress Charlotte. 
Its shadow fell upon the Emperor of the French. Little more 
than three years from the time when Maximilian was shot to 
death at Queretaro, Napoleon was a prisoner and the doom of 
the Second Empire was pronounced. 

By the treaty ceding Russian America or Alaska to the 
United States, which was signed by Secretary Seward and 
Baron Stoeckl March 30, 1867, and shortly afterwards con- 
firmed by the Senate, we acquired a territory of 570,000 
square miles. Public proclamation of the treaty was made on 
the 20th of June. At Sitka, on the 9th of October, in the 

' See correspondence of Secretary Seward with Lewis D. Campbell, American 
minister, and the representative of Mexico as to the disposition of Maximilian, in 
State Papers. Also files of newspapers for 1867. 



332 A Political History of Slavery 

presence of the citizens and of officers of both nations, the 
transfer was made. When the subject came before the House 
on a proposition to pay $7,200,000 for the territory there 
was a free interchange of views as to the propriety and the 
desirability of the purchase. The acquisition, on account of 
the lack of information, was generally regarded as undesirable. 
But there was a vague rumor abroad that this transaction bore 
some relation to the presence of the fleets of Russia in Ameri- 
can waters during the gloomiest period of the war, when the 
interposition of England and France seemed imminent. The 
money was voted, but not until after the House had asserted 
that no treaty could have full force and effect until the con- 
sent of Congress should first be obtained. This was an old 
contention, going back to the time when the Jeffersonians at- 
tempted to defeat the Jay treaty. But in this particular in- 
stance the House based its argument on the opinion of Judge 
McLean in the case of "Turner vs. The American Baptist 
Missionary Union," (5 McLean, 344). Judge McLean said: 

A treaty is the supreme law of the land only when the treaty- 
making power can carry it into effect. A treaty which stipulates 
for the payment of money undertakes to do that which the treaty- 
making power cannot do; therefore the treaty is not the supreme 
law of the land. To give it effect the action of Congress is neces- 
sary, and in this action the Representatives and Senators act on 
their own judgment and responsibility and not on the judgment and 
responsibility of the treaty-making power. A foreign government 
may be presumed to know that the power of appropriating money 
belongs to Congress. No act of any part of the government can be 
held to be a law which has not all the sanctions to make it law. 

The House incorporated the principle herein expressed in the 
preamble of the bill appropriating the money for the purchase 
of a territory that had already been transferred to the United 
States. The Senate objecting, the preamble was modified so 
as to declare in effect that 

Whereas the President had entered into a treaty with the Emperor 
of Russia, and the Senate thereafter gave its advice and consent to 



The Purchase of Alaska 333 

said treaty; and whereas said stipulations cannot be carried into 
effect except by legislation to which the consent of both Houses of 
Congress is necessary : therefore be it enacted that there be appro- 
priated the sum of $7,200,000 for the purpose named.' 

An opinion by Judge Swayne in the United States Circuit 
Court at Louisville, in November, on the constitutionality of 
the civil rights act attracted wide attention. It was a case' 
in which white persons convicted by a jury of burglary upon 
the house of a black woman, on her evidence, moved for arrest 
of judgment on the grounds that the civil rights bill under 
which the indictment was brought was unconstitutional, and 
that the laws of Kentucky prohibited blacks from testifying 
against whites. The opinion fully sustained the constitution- 
ality of the law. It held that citizenship does not depend on 
the States; that the term citizen is analogous to the term sub- 
ject in the common law, and that all persons born within 
the United States, or naturalized, are citizens. The United 
States has repeatedly made citizens by treaty, and its power 
of naturalization is not limited by color. The pretence that 
the national government has not the power to declare the 
question of citizenship, Judge Swayne said, was absurd and 
historically untrue. He claimed that the Constitution gives 
black persons the rights of citizenship in all the States, by the 
clause that citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the 
privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States. 
Even the limitation of the term "citizen " to voters would not 
exclude the blacks, for negroes voted in five States when the 
Constitution was adopted. Power having been conferred upon 
Congress to enforce all the provisions of the Constitution by 
proper legislation, the civil rights act was legal. 

Speaker Colfax, recognizing that the fiscal affairs of the 
country required a new financial policy, and economy in ex- 
penditures, reconstructed the two finance committees, disre- 
garding the rule of seniority. General Schenck was made 
chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means and Thaddeus 

'The bill received the President's approval, July 27, 1868. 
* The United States vs. John Rhodes and others. 



334 A Political History of Slavery 

Stevens chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, with 
E. B. Washburne as next in rank. On the 5th of December 
Mr. Schenck reported a bill repealing so much of the act of 
April 12, 1866, as authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to 
retire United States notes. Both Houses were in favor of the 
proposition, as the business classes demanded that some action 
should be taken. The measure as finally agreed to in a com- 
mittee of conference was as follows: 

That from and after the passage of this act, the authority of the 
Secretary of the Treasury to make any reduction of the currency, 
by retiring and cancelling United States notes, shall be, and is 
hereby suspended; but nothing herein contained shall prevent the 
cancellation and destruction of mutilated United States notes and 
the replacing of the same with notes of the same character and 
amount. 

The bill became a law without the approval of the Presi- 
dent. In his remarks in support of the measure, Mr. Sher- 
man said that it would satisfy the public mind that no further 
contraction would be made while industry was in a measure 
paralyzed. The complaint of business men was that trade and 
enterprise were not so well rewarded as formerly. To a con- 
traction unexampled in the history of any nation — $140,000,- 
000 had been withdrawn out of $737,000,000 in less than two 
years — the people attributed, perhaps erroneously, the unfa- 
vorable change in business conditions. But the measure would 
restore to the legislature their power over the currency, 
where it belonged ; and it would encourage business men to 
continue old, and embark in new, enterprises, when assured 
that no change would be made in the measure of values with- 
out the consent of their representatives. 

Mr. Sherman had opposed the passage of the act of April 
12, 1866. Some years afterwards ' he criticised the policy of 
the Secretary of the Treasury which took form in that meas- 
ure. He showed that the greenbacks were based upon coin 
bonds, and were convertible into an interest-bearing bond up 

' 1874. 



Retirement of Greenbacks Suspended 335 

to 1866, and until the passage of the act of April 12th/ Thus 
the note-holder was on an equality with the bond-holder. 
Under the authority which the act conferred on him Secre- 
tary McCulloch 

authorized the funding of all forms of interest-bearing securities 
into six per cent, gold bonds of the United States, while he proposed 
to raise the greenback up to par in gold by contracting it by gradual 
stages limited by the law. This act, and the very first thing done 
under it, separated forever the gold bonds from the legal tenders, 
and abandoned all idea of the power, the right and the practice to 
convert the greenback into a bond. 

The only limitation to the power of the Secretary of the 
Treasury was as to the rate of interest on the gold bonds. He 

funded the treasury notes, and all the various forms of interest- 
bearing notes, into six per cent, bonds, swelling the amount of our 
six per cent, indebtedness from about $700,000,000 to about $1,600,- 
000,000. All the treasury notes payable in currency were converted 
into six per cent, gold bonds, and the money of the people, the 
greenbacks, were left to be cancelled and retired under the last 
clause of the act, which authorized the Secretary to cancel $10,- 
000,000 by a certain time, and $4,000,000 in each month afterwards. 
Thus the bond-holder was provided for, and the note-holder was 
left without any legal right except a naked promise to pay in the 
indefinite future. 

If this act had contained a simple provision [said Mr. Sherman] 
restoring to the holder of the greenback the right to convert his 
note into bonds there would have been no trouble. Why should it 
not have been done ? Simply because the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury believed that the only way to advance the greenbacks was by 
reducing the amount of them ; that the only way to get back to specie 
payments was by the system of contraction. If the legal tender notes 
could have been wedded to any form of gold bond by being made 
convertible into it, they would have been lifted by the gradual 
advance of our public credit to par in gold, leaving the question of 
contraction to depend upon the amount of notes needed for currency.' 

' The right was taken away as to the five-twenty bonds in 1863. 
* Speeches, p. 419. 



336 A Political History of Slavery 

On the 17th of December Mr. Sherman made a carefully 
prepared report on the finances and taxation, and introduced 
a bill for refunding the national debt and for a conversion of 
the notes of the United States. After an extended discussion 
the bill was modified and passed, but failed to receive the ap- 
proval of the President. The theory of Mr. Sherman's plan 
(which afterwards was embodied in legislation) was to advance 
both bonds and notes to par in coin, and to issue bonds in 
such form and terms that the government could redeem them, 
or renew them at lower rates of interest. Meanwhile little 
could be accomplished with a President drifting towards re- 
pudiation, and placing himself in opposition to every measure 
calculated to foster enterprise and restore peace to the country. 

The apparent lessening of prosperity was inseparable from 
the abnormal conditions. There had been extraordinary ac- 
tivity in all industrial pursuits, in the construction of railroads 
and in the development of new territory. The population had 
been largely increased by immigration, which added to the 
wealth and producing capacity of the country. The volume 
and cheapness of the currency stimulated speculation, the ex- 
pansion of old enterprises and the undertaking of new. The 
capacity of production was greatly increased. With all this, 
prices advanced far beyond the premium on gold. But the in- 
crease in wages did not keep pace with the increase in rents 
and in the prices of articles of consumption. The Special 
Commissioner of Revenue estimated in 1866 that the average 
increase in the prices of labor, since i860, had been about 
sixty per cent., and of commodities and rents about ninety 
per cent." While for years manufactures had increased enor- 
mously and the profits were large, as competition became ag- 
gressive, the business men who had built shops and invested 
capital on the inflated basis were placed at a disadvantage 
as compared with those whose capital had been invested on a 
different basis. For these and other evils the cure was a read- 
justment of revenue, a decrease in taxation and an increase 

' The reports of David A. Wells, Special Commissioner, on revenue and taxation 
are invaluable. 



Impeachment of Johnson 337 

in the purchasing power of the currency. This was the task 
before Congress. Its execution was rendered more dif^cult 
//by the obstacles which rascality raised up at every step. 

The reactionary purpose of the Democrats of the Ohio Legis- 
lature was in harmony with the spirit that controlled the Presi- 
dent. Reconstruction with guaranties was to be defeated. 
But the popular will was firm in demanding justice and security 
for the future. It was not Congress alone against Andrew 
Johnson: the people were against him. As they witnessed 
his futile attempts to use Grant, Thomas and Sherman in his 
quarrels, their indignation increased. There was a demand for 
his impeachment. When the President suspended Secretary 
Stanton on the I2th of August, 1867, and appointed General 
Grant Secretary ad interim, the latter expressed the opinion 
that any interference on his part would be illegal. He was 
subsequently relieved from embarrassment by the Senate's re- 
fusal to approve of the suspension of Mr. Stanton. The 
President thought to transfer General Sherman from St. Louis 
to Washington. In order to accomplish that he nominated 
him to the rank of brevet-general. General Sherman promptly 
telegraphed to his brother, the Senator, to oppose the confir- 
mation. Failing in this, on the 21st of February, 1868, the 
President nominated General George H. Thomas to the rank 
of brevet-lieutenant-general and also to the rank of brevet- 
general. General Thomas telegraphed the President of the 
Senate an earnest request that the Senate would not confirm 
the nomination. Thus the attempt to raise up a power 
against Grant was a failure. 

Under the instructions of a resolution introduced in the 
House on the 7th of March, 1867, by James M. Ashley, the Judi- 
ciary Committee had taken testimony and considered charges 
against the President. On the 25th of November a majority 
of the committee reported a resolution on impeachment, which 
was made the special order for the 4th of December. James 
F. Wilson of Iowa and Frederick E. Woodbridge of Vermont 
and the two Democratic members of the committee opposed 
the resolution. When brought to a vote it was rejected. This 



33^ A Political History of Slavery 

would have ended all attempts at impeachment but for the 
folly of the President. He placed himself in the hands of his 
enemies. The Senate refusing to approve of the suspension 
of Mr. Stanton, the President removed him and appointed 
Lorenzo Thomas, the Adjutant-General of the Army, Secre- 
tary of War ad interim, without the advice and consent of the 
Senate, then in session. Such an officer is unknown to our 
laws except in case of suspension. This was a removal creat- 
ing a vacancy which should be filled by the chief clerk as pro- 
vided for in the act creating the War Department. Then, how 
could General Thomas legally serve? Did this act of the 
President's constitute an impeachable offence? The President 
might have secured the removal of Mr. Stanton by simply 
sending to the Senate the name of an unexceptionable person. 
He chose to defy the law. On the 24th of February, 1868, a 
resolution providing for impeachment was adopted by a vote 
of 126 yeas to 47 nays. 

Then followed the formal notification to the Senate and to 
the accused; the appointment of managers on behalf of the 
House; the imposing spectacle of the Senate sitting as a Court 
of Impeachment with the Chief Justice presiding, and the gal- 
leries filled with diplomatic representatives of foreign govern- 
ments, members of the press and citizens of the United 
States. For two months the trial lasted, during which time 
the columns of the newspapers were filled with descriptions 
of the scenes, comments on the testimony and speculations as 
to the result. So intense was the excitement that no one 
outside of the court seemed capable of forming an unbiased 
judgment. Even the dignified Chief Justice did not escape 
the censure of those who had early condemned the President 
in their hearts. When Mr. Chase in the most respectful man- 
ner suggested to the Senate that it was not a court until the 
Chief Justice should be seated as its presiding officer; and that 
it seemed to him "fitting and obligatory, when he was unable 
to concur in the views of the Senate concerning matters essen- 
tial to the trial, that his respectful dissent should appear," he 
was accused of being biased in favor of Mr. Johnson. This 



Impeachment of Johnson 339 

censoriousness swelled into a volume of angry protest and 
finally of accusation of having influenced the votes of certain 
Senators. Mr. Chase held that the Chief Justice, presiding in 
the trial of the President, has no other or different powers than 
the Vice-President would have presiding in a trial of the Chief 
Justice. He was not in any strict sense a member of the 
court. As presiding officer, being Chief Justice, it was proper 
that he should rule, preliminarily on questions of evidence, 
and, if called upon, express his opinions on any other ques- 
tions, in analogy to the practice in England when the judges 
attend the House of Lords on trials of impeachment, and an- 
swer such questions as the House of Lords sees fit to put. 
The whole proceeding was novel in our country, and the Chief 
Justice, as well as the Senators, wished the precedent properly 
made.' There was talk of denying to the Chief Justice the 
casting vote, but happily the occasion afforded no opportunity 
for a conflict between the Senate and the presiding officer in 
the impeachment. 

The managers on the part of the House were John A. Bing- 
ham, George S. Boutwell, James F. Wilson, John A. Logan, 
Thomas Williams, Benjamin F. Butler and Thaddeus Stevens. 
Mr. Stanbery resigned the office of Attorney-General and be- 
came one of the counsel for the President. His associates 
were B. R. Curtis, Jeremiah S. Black, William M. Evarts, 
William S. Groesbeck and Thomas A. R. Nelson. The trial 
ended by the acquittal of the President, on the eleventh 
article of impeachment, two-thirds not having voted "Guilty " 
as required by the Constitution. The vote stood thirty-five 
to nineteen." The Republicans voting "Not guilty" were 
Fessenden, Fowler, Dixon, Grimes, Henderson, Ross, Trum- 
bull and Van Winkle. These fell under condemnation, most 
unjustly, for maintaining their independent judgment. 

' The view of the Chief Justice was sustained by the Senate. 

* On the i6th of May a test vote showed that a two-thirds vote could not be 
obtained, and on the 26th the Court adjourned, having previously had several 
ballots with the same result as the first. Judgment of acquittal was then rendered 
by the Chief Justice. 



340 A Political History of Slavery 

It is of interest to take notice of a defence set up by those 
who apologized for the President. "It cannot be unlawful," 
said one of these, "for the President to violate an unconstitu- 
tional law, which is simply no law at all." And until the 
validity of the law should be decided by the Supreme Court 
the question of guilt or innocence could scarcely be enter- 
tained.* This theory would justify the President in disregard- 
ing or holding in suspense any law enacted despite the veto 
according to the provision of the Constitution, until the Su- 
preme Court shall have passed upon it. Does this in effect 
overthrow the power of the people conferred upon their repre- 
sentatives? The question engaged the attention of the Chief 
Justice in his correspondence pending the trial. "Nothing is 
clearer to my mind than that acts of Congress," said he, "not 
warranted by the Constitution are not laws." This was the 
argument employed by him and other anti-slavery leaders in 
other days to justify a disregard of the fugitive slave law. 
Individuals were to determine their responsibility for them- 
selves. 

In case a law [the Chief Justice continues], believed by the Presi- 
dent unwarranted by the Constitution, is passed, notwithstanding 
his veto, it seems to me that it is his duty to execute it precisely as 
if he held it to be constitutional, except in the case where it directly 
attacks and impairs the executive power confided to him by that 
instrument. In that case it appears to me to be the clear duty of 
the President to disregard the law, so far at least as it may be neces- 
sary to bring the question of its constitutionality before the judicial 
tribunal. 

How could the President fulfil his oath to preserve, protect 
and defend the Constitution, if he had no right to defend it 
against an act of Congress? Therefore it was inferred that the 
President not only had the right, but he was under the highest 
obligation, to remove Mr. Stanton, "if he made the removal, 
not in wanton disregard of a constitutional law, but with a 
sincere belief that the tenure-of-office act was unconstitutional, 

' New York Times. 



Impeachment of Johnson 341 

and for the purpose of bringing the question before the Su- 
preme Court." ' 

Impeachment failing, Mr. Stanton promptly resigned the 
office of Secretary of War, and was thus relieved from what 
must have been a very embarrassing position. The President 
appointed General Schofield to succeed him, which was accept- 
able to the friends of Congress. The President also appointed 
William M. Evarts to succeed Mr. Stanbery as Attorney- 
General. 

The excitement attending the trial of the President, the 
indignant remonstrances of the partisan press on the an- 
nouncement that impeachment had failed by one vote, the 
feeling of resentment predominant throughout the North and 
the apprehensions of the Southern loyalists are a part of 
the history of 1868. It was a period of serious importance. 
Our republican institutions were again on trial. A large 
section of the country was being terrorized by men convicted 
of rebellion, and arrayed in sympathy with them were their 
Northern allies of the days of civil war and the President of 
the United States. It may be pardoned the soldiers of the 
Union and their friends; it maybe pardoned the people's 
legislature, that they believed that security for the future was 
to be obtained through the impeachment of the President, 
who, they believed, had proved faithless and treacherous. 
They believed he had violated the law and broken his oath. 
But calmness of judgment is rarely possible in the presence 
of passion. Therefore one need not be surprised that a feel- 
ing of resentment swept over the land. The High Court of 
Impeachment afforded a salutary lesson which is appreciated 
to-day if it was not in its own epoch. It was constituted 
of men of high character and of distinguished ability. They 
discharged their duties conscientiously and with a delicate 
sense of their responsibilities. This may be said of Senator 
Wade, who would have succeeded to the presidency in case of 
impeachment, of Senator Sumner, who was the recognized 
leader of the radicals, and their associates of the majority, as 

' Letter to Gerrit Smith, April 19th. Warden's Li/e, p. 685. 



342 A Political History of Slavery 

well as of Senators Trumbull, Grimes and Fessenden, who 
were singled out for partisan vengeance because of their inde- 
pendence. One will not concede to them greater conscien- 
tiousness than to Sherman and Edmunds, or greater moral 
courage than to Wade, and yet their attitude is deserving of 
special remark. 

"I can do nothing," said Senator Grimes, "which, by im- 
plication, may be construed into an approval of impeachments 
as a part of future political machinery." This was in a sense 
a reflection upon fellow Senators, and is, therefore, less to be 
commended than the words of Senator Fessenden : 

I should consider myself undeserving of the confidence that the 
just and intelligent people imposed upon me in this great respon- 
sibility, and unworthy of a place among honorable men, if, for any 
fear of public reprobation, and for the sake of securing popular 
favor, I should disregard the conviction of my judgment and my 
conscience. 

In view of the consequences likely to flow from this day's pro- 
ceedings [said Senator Trumbull], should they result in conviction 
on what my judgment tells me are insufficient charges and proofs, I 
tremble for the future of my country. I cannot be an instrument 
to produce such a result; and at the hazard of the ties even of 
friendship and affection, till calmer times shall do justice to my 
motives, no alternative is left me but the inflexible discharge of 
duty. 

There were some who believed — all ought to have believed — 
that a party would be infinitely poorer which should lose the 
sympathy and support of such men. "A party can always 
afford," the Chicago Tribune remarked, "to take the conse- 
quences of the conscientious performance of a judicial duty." 
It was cause for congratulation that the Republican national 
convention which met at Chicago just after the vote was taken 
on the eleventh article refrained from casting any reflection 
on the Senators who had voted "Not guilty." The conven- 
tion, however, did not fail to deplore the accession of Andrew 



The Nomination of Grant 343 

Johnson to the presidential office and make proclamation of 
his offences. It also charged that he had "perverted the pub- 
lic patronage into an engine of wholesale corruption." 

The movement to make General Grant the candidate of the 
Republican party became irresistible after a great meeting in 
Cooper Institute, New York, held on the evening of December 
4, 1867. A. T. Stewart presided. Speeches were made by- 
Francis B. Cutting, General Sickles and others, and a com- 
mittee of twenty-four of the leading citizens of New York was 
appointed to take charge of the movement. A class of men 
not often found in political meetings participated. The fol- 
lowing resolution was adopted : 

Resolved, That in the judgment of this meeting, representing all 
of the great interests of national industry, the public sentiment of 
the country unmistakably indicates its choice for the ofifice of Chief 
Magistrate; and that in accordance therewith, and relying with per- 
fect confidence on the sagacity, judgment, persistent energy and 
unfaltering patriotism, so strikingly displayed throughout his whole 
civil and military career, we present General Ulysses S. Grant as the 
candidate of the loyal people of New York for the office of Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

To this popular sentiment Mr. Greeley and other leaders 
who had hoped for the selection of Mr. Chase, whose states- 
manship and experience marked him as preeminently fit for 
the office of President, yielded. Theodore Tilton misrepre- 
sented him in the Independent and made that an excuse for 
abandoning him. Mr. Chase's plan for restoring the Southern 
States was equal suffrage and universal amnesty. In one 
other respect only was he in accord with the Republican party, 
namely, in insisting on the maintenance of the faith of the 
nation by the payment of the public debt in the money of the 
world. There were certain tendencies in the Republican party 
he did not approve of. He held views that accorded with the 
political theories of Jefferson, which he hoped, now that slavery 
was dead, might find recognition in the revived Democratic 
party. His aspiration made him blind to what was plain to 



344 ^ Political History of Slavery 

others, that the subject upon which alone the Democratic 
party at the time was fully centred, and which distinguished it 
as a party before the war and in the time of reconstruction, 
was hostility to equal rights. 

The Republican national convention met in Chicago on the 
20th of May. The people were entertained the day before by 
the proceedings of a convention wholly constituted of soldiers 
and sailors who participated in the war, which was presided 
over by General Logan. But soldiers were very much in evi- 
dence also in the regular convention. General Carl Schurz, as 
temporary chairman, made a speech which added to his already 
great reputation as an orator. General Joseph R. Hawley of 
Connecticut was made permanent chairman of the convention. 
When, in his remarks, he declared that the issue was "the old 
fight of liberty, equality and fraternity against oppression, 
caste and aristocracy," his audience responded with enthusiasm. 

The power of a nation of forty millions [said he] must be just 
to the claims of the poorest workingman, of whatever race, to re- 
cover even and just wages. Its majesty must be felt whenever the 
humblest loyal man appeals against personal violence and oppres- 
sion. Every dollar of the national debt the blood of a soldier is 
pledged for. Every bond, in letter and spirit, must be as sacred 
as a soldier's grave. 

These sentiments suited the temper of the delegates. Ova- 
tions were given to Generals Sickles, Fairchild, Palmer and 
the delegation representing the Soldiers and Sailors' conven- 
tion. But these were tame compared with the reception of 
Ex-Governor Joseph E. Brown of Georgia, the most distin- 
guished of the Southern delegates present. 

The speech of Governor Brown is the fairest presentation of 
the political situation in the Southern States that will be found 
in print. He was a representative of the plain people. While 
endowed with uncommon natural abilities, he was modest, un- 
assuming and unambitious of place and power. He filled all 
offices to which he was called with fidelity, shirking no respon- 
sibility and seeking no selfish advantage. Although possessing 



The Nomination of Grant 345 

ample means, he and Mrs. Brown lived unostentatiously and 
simply, always hospitable, and always helpful to the poor. 
Their domestic life was beautiful in the genuineness of its 
faith, benevolence, simplicity and affection. This describes 
the character of the Georgian who now addressed the RepubH- 
can convention. 

As I remarked before I left my seat [Mr. Brown began], I was 
an original secessionist. I was born in South Carolina. Growing up 
under the influence and teachings of that master intellect, Calhoun, 
then in the full glow of his meridian, I early embraced the States 
Rights doctrines, and I suppose that I as sincerely and religiously 
believed that they were correct as you believed the opposite was 
sound. For years before the unfortunate struggle we have just 
passed through, I foresaw that the issue which divided the North 
and South must ultimately be settled by the sword. There was no 
common tribunal of judgment which either side would respect. 
Secession was the result. I went into it cordially as a States Rights 
man, and I stood by it as long as there was any chance to sustain it. 

Mr. Brown went on to say that when the end came and the 
people of the North were conquerors, he had sense enough to 
know he was whipped. He was arrested and imprisoned by 
.order of the President. When released and left free to act, 
he felt the time had come when he must choose between his 
own and some other country. He believed it was his interest, 
as it was certainly his choice, to remain in this government. 
If he remained, he must seek amnesty for the past and ask the 
protection of the government for the future. If it yielded that, 
he was in honor bound to return to his allegiance and make a 
good citizen if he could. Hence he had advocated every 
measure for reconstruction. When Congress, which had ulti- 
mate control of the question, proposed the Fourteenth Amend- 
ment to the Southern States, he advised such friends as sought 
his advice, that it was better to accept it, but the feeling 
was so overwhelming against it that no voice could sustain 
it then. 



346 A Political History of Slavery 

There was but one issue in the amendment, and that was the 
suffrage question, and that Congress left with the States to settle for 
themselves. If we voted the black race, we might count them in 
our representation. If we refused to vote them, we could not count 
them. That was right. In my judgment we acted very injudi- 
ciously. What followed? Supplemental reconstruction. I advised, 
on the passage of the first of these acts, that we should accept it. 
All that time it would have been easy for me who, without vanity I 
must say, had some popularity in my State, and had four times 
been elected its executive, and might have retained it, to have 
courted popularity; but duty dictated a different course. I fol- 
lowed it and have received the hearty denunciations of a large por- 
tion of my people for having done so. I have been denounced as 
an enemy of my race, and a traitor to the cause which has wrought 
so much evil. I do not think so. I think my course more honor- 
able than that of the man who was a rebel and sought the same 
amnesty I received, and then stays in its bosom prepared to sting 
it when opportunity offers. When I fought, I fought you openly 
and boldly. When I surrendered, I surrendered in good faith; 
and when I took the oath, I took it with a purpose religiously to 
observe it. By my theory — and I had been taught that it was a 
true one — my primary allegiance was to the State. When I had 
formerly taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United 
States, I understood it to bind me only when my State remained in 
the Union. But she withdrew. I did not feel I had violated that 
oath when I went with my State. But the oath to which the Presi- 
dent of the United States bound me was very different. I was 
sworn to support not only the Constitution but the Union of the 
States. When I did that, I abandoned the doctrine of secession 
from the Union. The Virginia and Kentucky resolutions that in- 1 
eluded the doctrine of secession, as I understood them, have always 
been the very platform upon which the Democracy have stood. 
But when the platform was knocked from under the feet of my party, 
I had nothing left to take hold of. As I understood them, the doc- 
trines of Democracy were State sovereignty and the right of secession. 
The sword has established a different doctrine, and hence it is 
that I am no longer bound by allegiance to the Democratic party. 

Mr. Brown added that this was unpopular doctrine in the 



Republican Platform of 1868 347 

South, but there were many Democrats and large numbers of 
original secessionists in the South who now stood firmly by 
the Republican party. 

Our Democratic friends there have opposed negro suffrage, and 
denounced it as an outrage upon manhood and society, and yet in 
the late elections there, the negro who voted the Democratic ticket 
was really a very respectable fellow, and a white man who voted 
the Republican ticket was a scalawag and a traitor. They tell us, 
"You establish negro supremacy in the South." Not so. While 
we grant to the colored people all their rights civil and political, we 
do not expect them to be our masters. We have the advantage in 
education and experience. We claim that we have the superiority 
of race. Tell me not, then, that the black people of Georgia can 
rule, when they are twenty thousand in the minority, and we have 
all these advantages. This is said with a view of prejudicing the 
Republican party North and South. It is not true in other States, 
even where the blacks are in the majority. If our white race act 
properly in this matter there will be no difficulty. 

This speech was the sensation of the convention. Members 
hoped that others of the good men of the South might take 
their places by the side of Governor Brown, and, thus united, 
break down the intolerance that held that rich and attractive 
section in thrall, and prevented its proper development. 

The reconstruction policy of Congress had the place of honor 
in the platform. The resolutions relating to it were brief and 
explicit. 

1. We congratulate the country on the assured success of the 
reconstruction policy of Congress, as evidenced by the adoption in 
the majority of the States lately in rebellion of constitutions securing 
equal civil and political rights to all; and it is the duty of the 
government to sustain those constitutions and to prevent the people 
of such States from being remitted to a state of anarchy. 

2. The guaranty by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men 
at the South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, 
of gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the ques- 
tion of suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people 
of those States. 



348 A Political History of Slavery 

13. We highly commend the spirit of magnanimity and forbearance 
with which men who have served in the rebellion, but who now 
frankly and honestly cooperate with us in restoring the peace of 
the country and reconstructing the Southern State governments 
upon the basis of impartial justice and equal rights, are received 
back into the communion of the loyal people; and we favor the 
removal of the disqualifications and restrictions imposed upon the 
late rebels in the same measure as the spirit of disloyalty will die 
out, and as may be consistent with the safety of the loyal people. 

14. We recognize the great principles laid down in the immortal 
Declaration of Independence as the true foundation of democratic 
government; and we hail with gladness every effort toward making 
these principles a living reality on every inch of American soil. 

The party was committed to an economical administration 
of the government and to a reform of the abuses which had 
found lodgment in several departments under Mr. Johnson. 
And closely related to this pledge was the declaration: "// 
is due to the labor of the 7iation that taxation should be equal- 
ized and reduced as rapidly as the national faith zuill permit/' 
Wise statesmanship would certainly seek to effect this result 
as speedily as possible and remain inflexible in the execution 
of an impartial plan. But inquiries already prosecuted under 
the authority of the Treasury Department developed sharp 
antagonisms, and an unwillingness to yield any reduction in 
the protective advantages which a state of war had fostered. 
Certain interests even demanded an increase of the already 
high rates of duties. The wool-growers asked for an advance 
of duty to ten cents a pound specific and ten per cent, ad 
valorem on all importations of unwashed wool. To reimburse 
the manufacturer of woollens for this increase of taxation it 
was estimated that it would require the levying of a minimum 
of fifty-three cents on every pound of woollen goods imported. 
So if both parties obtained the expected increase of price (and 
if they should not they would fail of their object), the domes- 
tic consumers would be taxed to the extent of thirty-two mil- 
lions of dollars per annum ' over and above what they were 

' Report of Special Commissioner of Revenue. 



Republican Platform of 1868 349 

already paying. This illustration is given to show the complex 
nature of the problem before Congress. The Pennsylvania 
members, in order to preserve the tariff system, were hastening 
a reduction of internal taxes. And in this department, owing 
to a crude system, the government was the victim of gross 
frauds. 

Meanwhile the Republicans in national convention de- 
nounced "all forms of repudiation as a national crime," and 
declared that the national honor required "the payment of the 
public indebtedness in the uttermost good faith to all creditors 
at home and abroad, not only according to the letter but the 
spirit of the laws under which it was contracted." It was 
recommended to Congress to extend the national debt "over a 
fair period for redemption," and to reduce the rate of interest 
whenever it could honestly be done. It was believed that the 
best policy to diminish the burden of debt was so to improve 
our credit that capitalists would seek to lend the government 
money at lower rates of interest. But "so long as repudia- 
tion, partial or total, open or covert, was threatened or sus- 
pected," the higher rates would be demanded. 

Such benefits had been derived from immigration during the 
war, that the Republican party was now pledged "to foster 
and encourage it by a liberal and just policy," and to extend 
to naturalized citizens protection in all their rights of citizen- 
ship, as though they were native-born. 

This being the first national convention since the death of 
the lamented Lincoln, a just tribute was paid to his memory. 
The volunteer soldiers and sailors, who marched to victory or 
to death under him as commander-in-chief, received generous 
recognition. 

The nomination of General Grant for President had been 
long expected. "Gentlemen of the convention," said Pres- 
ident Hawley, "you have six hundred and fifty votes, and 
you have given six hundred and fifty votes for General 
Ulysses S. Grant." The delegates and spectators rose and 
cheered, and the people ratified the selection in jollification 
meetings. 



350 A Political History of Slavery 

His character, his career and his genuine republicanism are his 
platform [said Harper s Weekly\. His clear sagacity and unsophis- 
ticated sense of justice assure the earnest radical; his coolness, 
prudence and moderation, the cautious conservative. The party- 
extremes are felt to be balanced and tempered in him as in no other 
man.' 

The experience following the selection of Andrew Johnson in 
the Baltimore convention excluded further experiments. The 
candidates named for the vice-presidency were men of the 
soundest republican convictions. Benjamin F. Wade, Reuben 
E. Fenton, Henry Wilson and Schuyler Colfax were the prom- 
inent men. Mr. Wade led for four ballots, and he would 
have received the nomination, which he merited, but for the 
opposition of four of the Ohio delegates. They refused to 
give him their support. On the fifth ballot Schuyler Colfax 
was nominated.^ In his very brief and modest letter of accept- 
ance General Grant refrained from discussing political ques- 
tions. He approved the platform and added that a purely 
administrative officer should always be left free to execute the 
will of the people. Mr. Colfax, in his letter of acceptance, 
condensed into a few paragraphs the prominent political issues 
of the day. His style combined grace with vigor of expres- 
sion. Referring to the policy of reconstruction he said : 

Certainly no one ought to have claimed that they should be re- 
admitted under such rules that their organization as States could 
ever again be used, as at the opening of the war, to defy the national 
authority or to destroy the national unity. . . . More clearly, 
too, than ever before does the nation now recognize that the great- 
est glory of a republic is, that it throws the shield of its protection 
over the humblest and the weakest of its people, and vindicates the 
rights of the poor and the powerless as faithfully as those of the 
rich and the powerful. 

> May 23, 1868. 

'On the first ballot Wade received 147 votes; Fenton, 126; Wilson, 119; 
Colfax, 115, The rest of the votes were divided among seven other candidates, 
On the fourth ballot the vote stood : Wade, 206 ; Fenton, 144 ; Wilson, 87 ; 
Colfax, 186. The break came on the next ballot, when Colfax received 541 votes. 



Democratic Convention of 1868 351 

The Democratic national convention was called to meet on 
the 4th of July in the city of New York. In imitation of the 
Republican management a soldiers' convention was also got 
up which had a small attendance. The great mass of the men 
who had been soldiers counted on the side with Grant. For 
some months great interest had been excited throughout the 
country by an agitation, which had its centre in Ohio, in favor 
of paying the national debt in depreciated currency. In that 
State the most active promoter of this plan of redemption was 
Washington McLean, and many attributed to him its author- 
ship. He was a man of great force of character, and skilful in 
the game of practical politics. A generous and warm-hearted 
man, his friendships were not limited to the lines of the Demo- 
cratic party, nor his influence to Democratic administrations. 
In the campaign of 1868 he is a conspicuous and interesting 
figure. His skill in forming combinations, his power to influ- 
ence and control men, all the craft and cunning of the profes- 
sional politician, were brought into requisition to meet men 
like gifted, namely the politicians of the New York school, 
the chief of whom wa- Samuel J. Tilden. The political game 
has rarely, if ever, been played in this country with such 
consummate craft and cunning as in Tammany Hall in the 
first week of July, 1868. 

Before the country George H. Pendleton appeared as the 
author of the greenback fiscal plan, McLean's paper, the E71- 
guirer, filling the role of organ for the statesman who had been 
the recognized champion of his party during the war. Mr. 
Pendleton was the logical candidate of the Democracy for the 
presidency. His culture, his personal popularity and his 
central location gave him some of the elements of strength 
most desirable in a national campaign. He was the only pro- 
nounced candidate before the convention met. Governor Sey- 
mour had been mentioned, but he declared he could not be a 
candidate. The names of General Hancock and Chief Justice 
Chase had also been used in connection with the nomination. 
In the opinion of many Democrats the election of General 
Grant over any of their own leaders was certain. The only 



352 A Political History of Slavery 

chance of bringing about a change of administration lay in the 
selection of a statesman possessing the public confidence who 
was identified with the prosecution of the war. It was known 
that Mr. Chase opposed the "Military Bill." He had joined 
in the judgment of the Supreme Court which set aside the 
Missouri test oath of loyalty and also in the opinion of the 
court which declared the act of January 24, 1865, requiring 
attorneys to take the oath of loyalty unconstitutional.' Per- 
sonal friends of Mr. Chase intimated that he would accept the 
nomination, but that he abated no jot of his views in favor of 
equal suffrage and universal amnesty. In 1864 he hoped the 
Democratic party might be induced to incorporate equal 
rights for all men, without distinction of color, in their dec- 
laration of principles. He now added equal suffrage as essen- 
tial to the complete regeneration of the party that had been 
compromised by slavery and by secession. It was understood 
that men of influence in New York were for him,— that Gov- 
ernor Seymour had said he was the only man who could defeat 
General Grant, — that the vote of that State was to be cast for 
him when the conditions should be favorable for his ultimate 
success in the convention. The selection of either the Chief 
Justice or General Hancock would be a condemnation of seces- 
sion and of the course of the Democratic party during the war. 
The friends of the Chase movement proposed in case of suc- 
cess to secure the second place for Sanford E. Church. On 
ascertaining this to be the fact, the managers for Mr. Pendle- 
ton made their first serious mistake. They attempted a com- 
bination with New York, by offering to the right-hand friends 
of Mr. Church the vice-presidency for their man. In the 
conferences that took place the friends of Pendleton declared 
that they were bound to rule the convention ; that they would 
prevent the nomination of any other Western man, and that 

' The opinion of the court was read by Justice Field. The dissenting opinion 
of Justice Miller is well worth a careful reading. A. H. Garland, an attorney of 
Arkansas, asked to be relieved from taking the test oath. After the judgment 
was rendered, the amendment to the second rule, which required the oath to be 
taken, was rescinded and annulled, Jan. 14, 1S67. 



Democratic Convention of 1868 353 

this was the opportunity for Mr. Church to obtain national 
prominence. But they showed the weak point in their game 
by asking the help of New York to secure the repeal of the 
two-thirds rule. It was a fatal mistake. The Church can- 
didacy, which was made to play a part in the Chase move- 
ment, was now used to cloak the master move of the New York 
politicians. There was a feeling of resentment because the 
Ohio people had taken seriously the declaration of Governor 
Seymour that he would not be a candidate, and presuming 
on that they had pushed their favorite, seeking combinations 
not at all to the liking of New York. A clever counter 
stroke was to suggest the candidacy of Senator Hendricks, 
thus threatening to divide the Pendleton strength. It was 
evident that the Ohio vote could not be turned to Chase, and 
without his own State even New York could not nominate him. 
The New York leaders determined to bring about a recon- 
sideration of the Seymour declination. Four days before the 
meeting of the convention, the Sim said : 

There seems to be a latent feeling of great strength and power 
that Seymour ought not to stand aloof and play the grand mufti 
business any longer. He is great, to be sure; but as Dominie 
Wilkins said of Washington, "Great God! he *s but a man, sir," 
and he ought not to be above place, and wish for it at one and the 
same time.' 

From this time forth the warfare between Ohio and New 
York became bitter. The more candidates the merrier for the 
men who were playing for Seymour. Governor English of 
Connecticut, Joel Parker of New Jersey and Asa Packer of 
Pennsylvania were useful pawns in the game. The Hendricks 
men made a futile effort to form an alliance with the support- 
ers of Governor English, who, it was humorously declared, 
consisted principally of Governor English and a few Connecti- 
cut cousins. 

Account must be taken of a letter written by General Frank 
P. Blair to Colonel James O. Broadhead and widely circulated 

' New York Sun, June 30th. 



354 A Political History of Slavery 

before the convention met, as it clearly indicates the spirit 
that finally controlled that body. After pointing out that the 
reconstruction policy of Congress would be completed before 
the election, that there was no possibility of changing the 
political character of the Senate and of undoing radical re- 
construction by Congressional action, he asks: 

Must we submit to it ? How can it be overthrown ? It can only 
be overthrown by the authority of the executive. . . . There is but 
one way to restore the government and the Constitution, and that is 
for the President-elect to declare these acts null and void, compel 
the army to undo its usurpations at the South, disperse the carpet- 
bag State governments, allow the white people to reorganize their 
own governments, and elect Senators and Representatives. The 
House of Representatives will contain a majority of Democrats from 
the North and they will admit the Representatives elected by the 
white people of the South, and, with the cooperation of the Presi- 
dent, it will not be difficult to compel the Senate to submit once 
more to the obligations of the Constitution. ... I repeat that this 
is the real and only question which we should allow to control us. 
. . . We must restore the Constitution before we can restore the 
finances, and to do this we must have a President who will execute 
the will of the people by trampling into dust the usurpations of Con- 
gress known as the reconstruction acts. / wish to stand before the\ 
convention upon this issue, but it is one which embraces everything 
else that is of value in its large and comprehensive results. 

The convention was called to order on Saturday, July 4th, 
by August Belmont, who v/elcomed its members to "Tam- 
many Hall, the temple erected to the Goddess of Liberty by 
her staunchest defenders and most fervent worshippers, and to 
New York the bulwark of Democracy." They felt confident 
of victory. 

The people would remember the glorious record of peace and 
plenty, and the achievements for the country under the old Demo- 
cratic administrations, and they would remember with sorrow that 
it was with the downfall of that party, in i860, the war came which 
brought mourning, desolation and debt to our land. The people 



Democratic Convention of 1868 355 

would remember, too, that after the strife was over, when the braves 
of our army and navy and the sacrifices of our people had restored 
the Union, when the victor and the vanquished were equally ready 
to bury the past and hold out the hand of brotherhood, // was again 
the defeat of the Democratic party in 1864 which prevented the con- 
sutmtiation so devoutly wished by all I 

Henry S. Palmer of Wisconsin, temporary chairman, congrat- 
ulated the country at large that on the anniversary of our 
nation's birth once more a convention of the Democracy of 
this country was assembled, in which all the States were rep- 
resented, and he expressed the hope that this fact might be 
an omen of such unity of sentiment as should enable the con- 
vention to produce such a work as would commend itself to 
the approval of the people, and thus wrest the country from 
the control of a party which sought its destruction. 

The friends of Mr. Pendleton wanted to proceed immedi- 
ately to balloting, but after appointing the committee on 
resolutions the convention adjourned over until Monday. Gov- 
ernor Seymour was made permanent president. In his re- 
marks he dwelt upon the crime of the Republican party in 
establishing a military despotism and overthrowing the liberty 
of the press. If Governor Seymour had taken the pains to 
read the Southern Democratic newspapers of the day he would 
have found that they were exercising the utmost freedom of 
speech. The Republican policy of reconstruction re-estab- 
lished and protected freedom of speech in the Southern States, 
thus benefiting the whole country. Continuing, Governor 
Seymour said : 

Having declared that the principles of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence should be made a living reality on every inch of American 
soil, they put in nomination a military chieftain who stands at the 
head of that system of despotism which crushes beneath its feet the 
great principles of the Declaration of Independence. 

The portion of his remarks entitled to consideration because of 
the attention he had bestowed upon economical subjects, was 



356 A Political History of Slavery 

that addressed to an exposition of the unsatisfactory condi- 
tion of the revenue, taxation and finances of the United States. 
Of course the Republican party was arraigned for imposing 
oppressive taxes and for inflicting upon the country a depreci- 
ated currency. "Was it not a crime," he asked, "to force the 
creditors of this and other States to take a currency at times 
worth no more than forty cents on the dollar, in repayment of 
the sterling coin they gave to build roads and canals, which 
yield such ample returns of wealth and prosperity?" This 
was an extraordinary way to promote the interests of his can- 
didate for the nomination, for Mr. Chase was the author of 
the legal-tender act which was passed by a reluctant Con- 
gress on his recommendation. But this exposition probably 
made the delegates all the more eager to adopt the Pendle- 
tonian platform. 

Interest in the declaration of principles, which was adopted 
by the convention with great unanimity, attaches to two reso- 
lutions. The reader passes by the arraignment of the opposite 
party as a thing of course and goes direct to the propositions 
which gave vitality to the campaign. The party demanded : 

Payment of the public debt of the United States as rapidly as 
practicable; all moneys drawn from the people by taxation, except 
so much as is requisite for the necessities of the government, 
economically administered, being honestly applied to such pay- 
ment, and where the obligations of the government do not ex- 
pressly state upon their face, or the law under which they were 
issued does not provide that they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in 
right and injustice, to be paid in the lawful money of the United States. 

This was interpreted by Mr. Pendleton (who as the highest 
authority in the country had the right to declare its meaning), 
in a speech at Grafton on the i6th of July, to mean an accept- 
ance of his plan to pay the bonds in legal-tender currency. 
Neither the spirit nor the letter of the law under which these 
bonds were issued, he declared, nor good faith, nor good 
morals, nor exact justice to the bond-holder, required their 
payment in gold. We shall see how widely this plausible and 



Democratic Convention of 1868 357 

dangerous heresy was embraced by people lacking a nice sense 
of honor who were staunch Unionists during the war and sup- 
porters of the Thirteenth Amendment. The author of the 
greenback theory shrewdly calculated that in its propagation 
the secession record of the Democratic party would be lost 
sight of, and he was nearly right in his calculation. How 
soon would it h^ practicable to pay the debt on the Democratic 
plan? There were $330,000,000 of bonds held in the Treasury 
Department as security for the national bank circulation. 
Redeem them with legal-tender notes and let these supply the 
place of the bank paper. Five hundred millions of the first 
issue of 5-20's would fall due during the year. Let these be 
redeemed also in legal-tender notes. Where would these notes 
come from? From the Treasury Department, of course. Re- 
verse Secretary McCulloch's whole policy of contraction; ex- 
pand the currency to the needs of the business of the country, 
and trade would revive and business become active. By these 
two measures the public debt would be reduced $830,000,000, 
and the interest more than $50,000,000 in gold annually, and 
the accruing revenue would enable the government, without 
further expansion, to pay off the residue of the 5-20's as they 
matured, and thus diminish still further the amount of interest 
and consequently the taxes.' It was this easy road to wealth 
and prosperity by which voters were allured for a time within 
the Democratic fold. 

The second distinctive and vital proposition was contained 
in the following declaration : 

And we do declare and resolve that ever since the people of the 
United States threw off all subjection to the British crown the 
privilege and trust of suffrage have belonged to the several States, 
and have been granted, regulated and controlled exclusively by 
the political power of each State respectively, and that any attempt 
by Congress, on any ])retext whatever, to deprive any State of this 
right, or interfere with its exercise, is a flagrant usurpation of power, 
which can find no warrant in the Constitution, and, if sanctioned 



' Speech of George II. Pendleton at Grafton. Cincinnati Chronicle, July 17, 1 



868. 



35^ A. Political History of Slavery 

by the people, will subvert our form of government, and can only- 
end in a single, centralized and consolidated government, in which 
the separate existence of the States will be entirely absorbed, and 
an unqualified despotism be established in place of a federal union 
of co-equal States. And that we regard the reconstruction acts {^so 
called') of Congress, as such, as usurpations and unconstitutional, revo- 
lutionary and void. 

This is the proposition which General Blair said he wished 
to stand upon before the convention. It was made a part of 
the platform of the party through the influence of General 
Wade Hampton, who represented South Carolina on the Com- 
mittee on Resolutions. 

The meaning of the Broadhead letter, approved by the in- 
corporation of its essence in the platform of the party and the 
nomination of its author, fairly expressed, was this: "If we 
elect our President it will be his duty to use the army of the 
United States to overturn and disperse the State governments 
that have been erected in the South under the action of Con- 
gress." "That is rebellion; that is war," exclaimed Senator 
Morton.' The revolutionary character of the proposition re- 
strained thousands from voting the Democratic ticket in 1868, 
who otherwise were inclined to support that party. 

The resolutions were not reported and adopted until Tues- 
day. The business of balloting for a candidate was then seri- 
ously entered upon. The effort of Mr. Pendleton's friends to 
have the two-thirds rule rescinded failed of its purpose. He 
commanded the support of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and 
enough votes from other States to place him in the lead. 
Each delegate had one half a vote. The whole number of 
votes was 317, and 212 were necessary to a choice. Mr. Pen- 
dleton received 105 on the first ballot. Andrew Johnson came 
next with 65 votes, cast by Southern delegates who soon de- 
serted him. The New York managers during Tuesday and 
Wednesday, with the help of Pennsylvania and New England, 
succeeded in killing off the most prominent candidates by 

' Speech in reply to Garrett Davis, July lO, Cong. Globe. 



The Nomination of Seymour 359 

transferring enough votes to some other candidate to change 
the lead. When on the eighth ballot Pendleton's vote reached 
within three of a majority, New York, apparently alarmed, 
dropped Church and went over to Hendricks. Hancock 
reached his highest vote — 144I- — on the eighteenth ballot. At 
this time a California delegate introduced the name of Chase. 
It was received with enthusiasm by the spectators, but the 
convention did not respond. New York was engaged in 
playing a subtle game — in bringing other delegations to accept 
the nomination of Horatio Seymour as the best solution of the 
complications. When the convention adjourned on Wednes- 
day, a rumor was current that New York would, on Thursday, 
press the nomination of Chase — that Mr, Seymour would take 
the floor for the purpose of putting him in nomination on be- 
half of New York. If the nomination of Mr. Chase had been 
the real purpose, the delegation would have voted for him on 
Wednesday in response to the popular applause. That night 
Ohio resolved to exercise a decisive influence. The next 
morning the delegation withdrew the name of Pendleton. 
This was Governor Seymour's opportunity to perform the 
dramatic act of leaving the chair to place in nomination the 
Chief Justice. He remained silent". The speech he was said 
to have prepared for that purpose was never delivered. The 
voting was resumed. On the twenty-first ballot Hancock had 
135|-, and Hendricks 132; with 48^ divided among other can- 
didates. A part of the Ohio delegates voted for Mr. Hen- 
dricks. The delegation withdrew for consultation, and on 
returning to the hall General McCook, chairman, said that at 
the unanimous request of Ohio, including Mr. Pendleton, he 
should again put in nomination Mr. Seymour, "though against 
his inclination, but no longer against his honor." Mr. Sey- 
mour, in the chair, responded by expressing his gratitude for 
the magnanimity of Ohio and the generosity of the conven- 
tion, but he must stand on his conclusions against the world, 
concluding with the words, "Your candidate I cannot be." 
Mr. Vallandigham, standing upon his chair, shouted that in 
times of great calamity and danger it required a sacrifice of 



360 A Political History of Slavery 

personal feelings, that the safety of the Republic demanded 
that Mr. Seymour should be a candidate and Ohio would not 
accept his declination. Mr. Kernan of New York followed in 
an earnest appeal for Mr. Seymour. Amidst intense excite- 
ment the balloting proceeded. Mr. Seymour retired from 
the chair. Ohio remained firm. The votes of Massachusetts, 
Kentucky and Wisconsin were transferred to Seymour. When 
most of the other States had changed to Seymour, Mr. Tilden 
expressed his gratitude to Ohio for bringing about the nomina- 
tion of the favorite of the State that had most persistently 
opposed Mr. Pendleton, and closed by casting the vote of New 
York for Seymour.' 

The purpose of Ohio's tactics has been misunderstood. The 
managers of Mr. Pendleton's candidacy did not fear the nomi- 
nation of Mr. Chase. They did fear such a combination be- 
tween New York and Indiana as should make Mr. Hendricks 
the candidate. Finding that their own candidate could not 

' Whatever may have been Governor Seymour's personal feelings at the time, the 
course taken in relation to the nomination of Chief Justice Chase was the very one 
calculated most certainly to defeat its accomplishment. Alexander Long of 
Ohio, an original Chase man, was in constant communication with the adroit New 
York managers who brought about the complications which resulted in the naming 
of Mr. Seymour. Mr. Long was led to believe that on Thursday morning Mr. 
Seymour, on his way to the convention and less than two hours before he was 
nominated, read to Dr. Thomas Ottman of New York an elaborately prepared 
speech, which he intended to make on seconding the nomination of the Chief 
Justice on behalf of New York. (Letter of Alex. Long, Cincinnati Chronicle.) 
Mr. Long declared soon after the convention closed that Mr. Vallandigham was 
" entitled to all the honor that attaches to the nomination of Horatio Seymour." 
His description of the scene when Governor Seymour withdrew from the stage is 
graphic. He wrote : 

" Mr. Tilden, it seems, was the first to look after the Governor in the confusion 
that followed, and found him in the ante-room adjoining the stage, suffused in 
tears, and immediately beat a retreat from the scene of his achievements, and as 
he led the Governor down the stairway, with the tears yet in his eyes, he met his 
old friend Peter Harvey, of Boston, one of the vice-presidents of the convention, 
when he seized him by the hand and exclaimed, ' Pity me, Harvey, pity me.' " 

The reader will be able to determine from the context, despite Mr. Long's 
somewhat novel use of pronouns, that it was the unfortunate nominee, and not 
Mr. Tilden, who besought the pity of Mr. Harvey. Harper's Weekly hit off the 
comedy after the following fashion : 



Chase's Attitude in 1868 361 

win against the two-thirds rule, they decided to put the great 
State of New York under such obhgation to Mr. Pendleton, 
that when his name should again be presented in a national 
convention support instead of opposition might reasonably be 
counted on. Magnanimity is a manifestation of superior wis- 
dom at all times. This is as true in the game of politics as in 
other human affairs. The ticket was completed by the nomi- 
nation on the first ballot of General Frank P. Blair for Vice- 
President. 

Old friends of Mr. Chase never ceased to regret his part in 
this New York convention. It was a great mistake. Unques- 
tionably his great ambition to be President influenced his in- 
clination, but he could not sacrifice his early convictions as to 
human rights. He had in mind a party cherishing the pure 
democratic principles of the author of the Declaration of In- 
dependence. Thus shortly before the convening of the dele- 
gates in New York he expressed his wish in the following 
explicit language: "It is an intense desire with me to see the 

" We are treated to a scene of unusual interest when Seymour, locked in the 
arras of Tilden, was observed in tears, still refusing to serve : 

" The West. — Do, good my lord, the citizens entreat you. 
The South. — Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffered love. 
Seymour. — Will you enforce me to a world of cares? 

I am not made of stone, 
But penetrable to your kind entreaties, 

{Coiiiiniies to shed tears) 
Albeit against my conscience and my soul. 
Since you will buckle fortune on my back. 
To bear her burden whe'r I will or no, 
I must have patience to endure the load : 
But if black scandal or foul-faced reproach 
Attend the sequel of your imposition. 
Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me 
From all the impure blots and stains thereof ; 
For God doth know, and you may partly see, 
How far I am from the desire of this. 
" The wires had scarcely flashed the news — for such it was — of his nomination 
over the city, when a vehicle drawn by eight elegant horses, heralded by a loud 
bell, was observed, bearing a well-dried placard, in large, well-painted letters, 
announcing that Horatio Seymour, the favorite son of New York, had been 
nominated and would be jelected to the presidency ! " 



362 A Political History of Slavery 

Democratic party meeting the questions of the day in the spirit 
of the day, and assuring to itself a long duration of ascendency. 
It can do so, if it will." It was a dream. The Democratic 
party of slavery propagandism, of Pierce, Buchanan and Sey- 
mour never could be made to stand upon a democratic plat- 
form of equal rights. We get a glimpse of the disgust the 
Tammany Hall platform excited in him, and of his relations to 
policies and individuals in a private letter to Whitelaw Reid, 
to whose courtesy I am indebted for a copy. Mr. Chase was 
adrift upon the sea of independence. He wrote from Narra- 
gansett ' : 

. , . I dare say you will be surprised at my shortness of 
memory; but I really have forgotten pretty much all that was in 
the memorandum that I handed you in Washington. You see what 
need I have to stick to that which can never contradict itself — the 
truth. Yet even the truth as to my feelings and impressions and 
even convictions may change so much as to give to expressions at 
one time the appearance of contradiction to statements made at 
another. 

. . . I am glad and thankful that I was not nominated at 
New York. I am very sorry that the platform of the convention 
was such as it was made through the ultra anti-reconstructionists 
and the unfortunate support which their wishes met from the Blair 
letter, and through the Blair nomination interpreted by that letter. 
I do not want to be understood as having any sentiment 

'August 23, 1868. This was the time when Mr. Reid was about to sever his 
connection with the Cincinnati Gazette and join Mr. Greeley. " I am glad," said 
Mr. Chase, " and yet sorry that you are going to New York on the Tribune. 
You are needed by the Western Republicans more than by New York." MS. 
The same to the same, Washington, Oct. 31, 1868 : 

" My dear Reid : 

" . . . You could not have inferred how greatly obliged to you I feel by 
all your kind endeavors to protect my reputation, though I am afraid I am more 
indifferent to misrepresentation than my friends are. A very curiously contrasted 
character of me might be very easily made out from the writings and sayings of 
the same man at different times. The election will soon be over now, and I hope 
we shall have peace. Grant will doubtless be elected. What we shall have be- 
sides peace who can tell? Faithfully yours, 

" S. P. Chase." MS. 



I 
i 



The Election of Grant 363 

but respect and general concurrence of sentiment for Mr. Sey- 
mour. Without a platform, and free from the influences of violent 
and rash men, I believe the national administration would be safe 
in his hands. I have known him, more through' mutual friends than 
personally, for a good while, and have always had very kindly feel- 
ings toward him. When we have differed most, I have never heard 
of an unkind or an ungracious expression from him. 

Nor do I want it understood that I would not vote for some 
Democrats as against some Republicans. For example: I remem- 
ber well the extreme virulence of Mr. Eggleston' during the im- 
peachment, and his reported declaration how he would strip the 
Chief Justice of his robes if he could; and I do not think there is 
anything in his Republicanism or in his usefulness as a Representa- 
tive, which would require me to give my vote to him rather than to 
Strader. I think it will be much better for the country to have no 
more two-thirds majorities, and such men as he is can be best spared. 
So, too, I should be inclined, notwithstanding his financial errors, 
as I think them, to give a vote, if I had one in the district, to Gary." 
I like him for his independence. Very likely, however, I shall not 
vote at all this year. I shall if it is convenient to do so; but may 
not think it worth while to put myself to the trouble of a long and 
expensive journey for that purpose. You are quite right in saying 
that "the Republicans have not of late given me any great encour- 
agement to help them." 

The canvass was conducted with vigor on both sides. The 
Democrats strengthened themselves in Indiana by nominating 
Mr. Hendricks for Governor, and by generally selecting good 
men for local offices and for candidates for Congress. All 
their efforts to cover up the record of the past by making the 
national debt the paramount question were futile, because the 
debt resulted from rebellion. They were placed on the de- 
fensive, and no management, though never so skilful, could 

1 Benjamin Eggleston, who represented the First Congressional district of Ohio 
(Mr. Chase's home district). He was an extreme partisan and had never been 
friendly towards the Chief Justice. 

' Samuel F. Cary, who was elected as an independent Republican in the Second 
district, to succeed General Hayes. He became a Greenback propagandist, and 
then a Democrat. 



3^4 A Political History of Slavery 

relieve the party from the odium it had incurred. It was the 
mission of General Blair to undo much that the other leaders 
in the North did to turn public attention to financial and in- 
dustrial questions. These he declared could not be considered 
intelligently until revolution accomplished the overthrow of 
all that Congress had done in the way of reconstruction. As 
the campaign advanced he grew more and more imprudent — 
even to the rashness of suggesting the assassination of General 
Grant, whom he represented as ambitious for power to crush 
the States and the liberties of the people and make himself im- 
perator.' Maine's response was a large Republican majority. 
The October States all voted the same way, which showed the 
popular drift. In Indiana Mr. Hendricks was defeated by 
Conrad Baker. 

Following the October elections there was a state of panic 
in the Democratic ranks. The New York World advised 
and demanded a change of front. An "inspired" editorial 
containing similar advice appeared in the Intelligencer. The 
Richmond Despatch said if Chase had received the nomination 
he could have been elected. There was talk of making the 
ticket Chase and Adams, in case of the withdrawal of Seymour 
and Blair. There were consultations in Washington and New 
York. The conclusion reached in New York by the party 
leaders was, that to change would be a fatal confession of 
weakness from which the party could not rally. It was de- 

' The passage in the speech of General Blair at St. Louis, to which reference 
is made in the text and which attracted wide attention, is as follows : 

" The point to which I desire to bring you is this : that in this struggle we have 
everything at stake ; it is the final and last struggle for the preservation of free 
constitutional government in America ; that if we fail in it the Republic fails 
with us. It becomes a mere appendage of the military chieftain, who was lifted 
to power in the name of the President, but who will never leave the presidential 
mansion alive. I know that gentleman well. He comes back a conqueror, and 
as by treating these States, in violation of the Constitution, as conquered prov- 
inces he shows his intention to treat the whole people of the country as conquered 
provinces, if he should ever be able to make that one stepping-stone, and arm 
himself with the presidential power. That is my judgment of his character and 
design." — The St. Louis Times. The Democrat confirmed the report. The 
Times was General Blair's organ. 



The Election of Grant 365 

cided to keep General Blair in the background and that Gov- 
ernor Seymour should take part in the canvass. The speeches 
he made in western New York, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsyl- 
vania were largely devoted to the task of allaying popular 
apprehensions as to the danger of placing the national gov- 
ernment again in the control of the Democratic party. It all 
would not do. Confidence could not be restored so soon after 
the experiences of the war. All of the States, except Missis- 
sippi, Texas and Virginia were represented in the electoral 
college. Two hundred and fourteen electors voted for General 
Grant and eighty for Governor Seymour. The latter carried 
his own State, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Georgia, 
Louisiana, Kentucky and Oregon. General Grant's majority 
on the popular vote was 309,584; but this leaves standing 
against him in the count the questionable vote of Louisiana. 

Plaqjieminhtg, practised in the days of John Slidell, now 
gave place to a less expensive but more bloody system of 
frauds upon the elective franchise. Louisiana was given over 
to rioting and assassination in 1868 as the method of a party 
to have its will at the polls. Immunity from punishment for 
a murderous assault upon a constitutional convention, peace- 
ably assembled in the city of New Orleans, encouraged the 
Democratic leaders to attempt a campaign of violence on a 
more extensive theatre to promote the candidacy of Sey- 
mour and Blair. A brief reference to the bloody carnival of 
one day and night will suffice for a description of the lawless- 
ness that had possession of the State for weeks. 

During the whole of yesterday and last night [wrote a correspon- 
dent to the New York Times\ the Seymour and Blair rebel clubs 
had the city of New Orleans virtually in their control. They were 
out in all parts of town, fully armed, some as infantry, others as 
cavalry, and others still as private citizens, bearing small weapons 
as if for assassination purposes. During the night the houses of 
many leading Republicans were visited by bands of mounted men, 
who, in some cases were content to rob their victims of their money, 
while in others, after robbing and plundering, they destroyed the 
furniture and left the place in ruins. Early in the evening several 



366 A Political History of Slavery 

hundred armed and excited rebels gathered around police head- 
quarters, fully resolved to seize upon them and to create a new 
police more to their liking than the present metropolitan force. 
While this crowd stood near the City Hall and close to the police 
station, the "Innocents," a Seymour club, composed chiefly of the 
most desperate men in the city, paraded crying: "Death to all 
carpet-baggers "; "Death to niggers "; "Three cheers for Blair"; 
"Death to Grant "; "We are going to rule"; etc. To-day again 
the "Innocents" are out and parading the streets in small bands, 
killing inoffensive black men here and there. The city is in a state 
of anarchy, and were it not for the military authority not one lead- 
ing Republican would be alive this morning. 

One half of the country districts were given over to midnight 
raids, secret murders and open riots, which kept the people 
in constant terror. In the parish of Caddo, the newly organ- 
ized Ku-Klux "killed and wounded over two hundred Repub- 
licans, hunting and chasing them for two days and nights 
through fields and swamps. Thirteen captives were taken 
from the jail and shot, and twenty-five dead bodies were found 
buried in a pile in the woods." ' And the report from which 
the account relating to Caddo parish is taken sums up the 
casualties in the State preceding the election as "over two 
thousand persons killed, wounded and otherwise injured," 
The force at the disposal of General Rousseau, who was in 
command of the district, was inadequate to deal with a con- 
spiracy so widespread. When asked by a correspondent of 
the New York Herald, whether he expected to have a fair 
and peaceable election, he replied : ''There will be no election 
in Louisiana. You can telegraph that fact. The radicals 
will not vote, they dare not, indeed. Whatever show of an 
election there is will be either a farce or a tragedy. I shall 
do my best to prevent the tragedy." General Rousseau's 
relief was infinite when he learned that the Republicans had 
decided to leave the polls to the triumphant Democracy." 
The criticism passed upon him by others remote from the 

' Report of Congressional Committee of Investigation. 
^ New Orleans Republican, November 5th. 



i 



The Election of Grant 367 

scene was, that his achievement fell far short of what the oc- 
casion required.' It is not surprising that in Caddo parish, 
which was largely Republican, but one vote was cast for Gen- 
eral Grant ; nor that the "Innocents," who voted with great 
frequency and industry, when not engaged in shooting mem- 
bers of the opposite party, were able to return a majority of 
47,000 for Seymour and Blair, which was nearly two thousand 
greater than the entire registered white vote of Louisiana in 
1867. 

Mississippi, Texas and Virginia were excluded from the 
electoral college by a joint resolution passed by Congress in 
July. It provided that none of the rebellious States should be 
entitled to electoral votes unless at the time prescribed for the 
election such State had adopted a constitution since the 4th 
of March, 1867, under which a State government had been 
organized ; unless the election was held under the authority 
of that government; and unless the State had become entitled 
to representation in Congress under the reconstruction laws." 
As the time drew near for counting the electoral vote, Mr. 
Edmunds introduced in the Senate a concurrent resolution 
supplemental to the joint resolution of July, 1868, which pro- 
vided that, on the assembling of the two Houses on the second 
Wednesday of February, 1869, for the counting of the elec- 
toral votes. 



as provided by law and the joint rules, if the counting or omitting 
to count the electoral votes, if any, which may be presented as of 
the State of Georgia, shall not essentially change the result, in that 
case they shall be reported by the President of the Senate in the fol- 
lowing manner: Were the votes presented, as of the State of Georgia, 

to be counted, the result would be, for for President of the 

United States, — votes; but in either case is elected Presi- 
dent of the United States; and in the same manner for Vice- 
President. 

' Cincinnati Chronicle, November loth, 

' The joint resolution was vetoed by the President, July 20th, and was subse- 
quently passed over the veto by both Houses. 



368 A Political History of Slavery 

The resolution met the opposition of Mr. Hendricks and 
other Democratic Senators. Mr. Trumbull thought it better 
to count the vote of Georgia and say nothing about it. The 
resolution was adopted by both Houses. When Louisiana was 
reached in the count on the loth of February, Mr. Mullins of 
Tennessee objected to counting the vote on the ground that 
there had been no valid election in that State. The twenty- 
second joint rule under which the convention was acting re- 
quired that, upon objection being made to counting the vote 
of any State, each House should separately consider and de- 
cide on the question raised. Accordingly, the Senate with- 
drew. Both Houses decided to count the vote. When the 
State of Georgia was announced, Mr. Butler of Massachusetts 
objected to counting the vote: (i) Because the vote of the 
electors in the electoral college was not given on the first 
Wednesday of December, as required by law. (2) Because at 
the date of the election the State of Georgia had not been 
admitted to representation in Congress. (3) Because the State 
had not complied with the requirements of the reconstruction 
laws. (4) Because the election was not a free, just, equal and 
fair election. The Senate withdrew as before, and decided 
that under the Edmunds concurrent resolution objections to 
the counting of the vote were not in order. The House 
decided that the vote should not be counted. The joint con- 
vention was resumed, and amid great confusion and loud ob- 
jections by Mr. Butler the Vice-President ordered the result to 
be announced. And having declared the result of the count 
he added: "The object for which the House and Senate have 
assembled in joint convention having transpired, the Senate 
will retire to its chamber." ' 

When the Speaker called the House to order, Mr. Butler 
rose to a question of privilege and offered a resolution declar- 
ing "that the counting of the vote of Georgia by the order of 
the Vice-President pro tempore was a gross act of oppression 
and an invasion of the rights and privileges of the House." 
Before hearing Mr. Butler, the Speaker with great clearness 

' Annual Cyciopcedia, 1869. 



The Election of Grant 369 

recounted the history of the joint rules, the apparent conflict 
in which produced the excitement in the joint convention of 
the two Houses. The twenty-second joint rule, adopted Feb- 
ruary 6, 1865, provided not only that in case any question 
should arise in regard to counting the vote of a State, the 
question should be considered by the Houses separately, but 
that no question should be decided affirmatively, and no vote 
objected to should be counted except by the concurrent votes 
of the two Houses. The Edmunds concurrent resolution 
withdrew the State of Georgia from the operation of the 
twenty-second joint rule. Hence the confusion. The Vice- 
President in counting the vote complied with the later and 
repealing law which the two Houses had made. 

In discussing the question Mr. Butler took exception to all 
of the rules which the two Houses had formed to govern the 
counting of the electoral votes. 

The Constitution says that the President of the Senate shall open 
in convention all of the votes of all of the States, and they shall be 
therein counted, and it is as impossible for this House or the Senate, 
either jointly or separately, in concurrence or otherwise, to stop the 
operation of that constitutional enactment as it is to turn back the sun 
in its course. ... If the House and the Senate, by joint action 
before had, can determine what votes shall be counted and what 
votes shall not be counted, then the House and the Senate can deter- 
mine who is and who is not to be the President of the United States. 

In the opinion of Mr. Eldridge of Wisconsin, the concurrent 
resolution and the twenty-second joint rule of the two Houses 
were both in contravention of the Constitution. It was the 
duty of the Senate and House in convention, if the certificate 
of a State was in form, to count the votes therein — not merely 
as a matter of count, but for the purpose of ascertaining the 
result. Butler was generally censured for making a scene. 
When roused, his manner was domineering, his language ran- 
corous and coarse. All resolutions relating to the disgraceful 
scene in the convention, offered in the House, were laid on 
the table and nothing further was heard of the twenty-second 
joint rule until some years later. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT — THE SOUTH COOPERATES IN 
RECONSTRUCTION 

THE last annual message of President Johnson displays 
his stubborn nature most completely. The tone is bel- 
ligerent; references to the reconstruction measures of 
Congress are highly disrespectful, even insolent; and the 
treatment of fiscal questions is uncandid and reckless. The 
President declared that after a fair trial the reconstruction 
measures had failed and proved pernicious in their results, and 
there seemed to be no good reason why they should remain 
upon the statute book. He contrasted with these the policy 
of the executive which, he said, "had brought the work of 
restoration as near completion as was within the scope of its 
authority, and the nation was encouraged by the prospect of 
an early and satisfactory adjustment of all its difificulties." 
Congress, however, intervened ; adopted a series of measures 
which arrested the progress of restoration, frustrated all that 
had been so successfully accomplished, and, after three years 
of agitation and strife had left the country further from the 
attainment of union and fraternal feeling than at the inception 
of the Congressional plan of reconstruction. In all this the 
President was seeking his own vindication. No account was 
taken of the effort made, before Congress enacted the recon- 
struction laws, by the insurrectionary States, with the acquies- 
cence of the President, to place four millions of people in a 
state of subjection more inhuman than their previous condition 
of servitude. Mr. Lincoln proposed to make the loyal white 



Johnson's Last Annual Message 371 

inhabitants of a State, if one tenth of the whole of the whites, 
the governing power of the State. He hoped they might 
accept the aid of such blacks as could read and such as had 
served in the Union army as soldiers. Congress included 
all of the blacks, and restored to citizenship, with a few thou- 
sand exceptions, all who had borne arms against the govern- 
ment. Before administering this lecture, the President issued 
a proclamation in which he declared a full amnesty to all per- 
sons guilty of treason against the United States, except those 
who were already indicted for this offence. On the 25th of 
December he issued still another proclamation in which par- 
don and amnesty were granted to a like class of offenders, 
without exception.' With this closed Andrew Johnson's con- 
nection with the work of restoration. 

He did not fail, however, on his retirement from the White 
House to fire a Parthian shot at Congress in an address to the 
people of the United States. He described the members of 
Congress as men who, "when the rebellion was being sup- 
pressed by the volunteered services of patriot soldiers amid 
the dangers of the battle-field, crept without question into 
place and power in the national councils." After an attempt 
to apply this to Sumner and to many other distinguished 
statesmen in the two Houses associated with him in originating 
legislation for the defence of the government and the preserva- 
tion of the Union, the reader will not attach much importance 
to the "catalogue of crimes" which Mr. Johnson sets down 
to their dishonor. Aside from the evidence it gives of a 
personal grievance and its display of passion, the address is not 
lacking in dignity and force as an explanation of his course 
as chief magistrate. "My sole ambition," he declares, "has 
been to restore the Union of the States, faithfully to execute 
the oflfice of President, and, to the best of my ability, to pre- 

' Mr. Johnson, in his address on retiring from the office of President, taxes 
Congress with the responsibility for the failure to bring Jefferson Davis to trial. 
"Indeed," he adds, "the remarkable failures in his case were so often repeated 
that, for propriety's sake, if for no other reason, it became at last necessary to ex- 
tend to him an unconditional pardon." 



Zl'2 A Political History of Slavery 

serve, protect and defend the Constitution." One is prepared 
to accept this statement as a truthful summing up of Mr. 
Johnson's aspirations, while deploring his defects of character 
and education which unfitted him for the office of President. 

Recommendations of economy in expenditures and an early- 
liquidation of the public debt in the annual message were fol- 
lowed by a mischievous suggestion of repudiation. It was the 
argument of the demagogue: 

Our national credit [Mr. Johnson said] should be sacredly ob- 
served, but in making provision for our creditors we should not 
forget what is due to the masses of the people. It may be assumed 
that the holders of our securities have already received upon their 
bonds a larger amount than their original investment, measured by 
a gold standard. Upon this statement of facts it would seem but 
just and equitable that the six per cent, interest now paid by the 
government should be applied to the reduction of the principal in 
semi-annual installments which in sixteen years and eight months 
would liquidate the entire national debt. 

It is not to be supposed that Mr. Johnson did not know that 
such a suggestion, emanating from the executive, would em- 
barrass the government in funding the public debt. Fortu- 
nately Congress in dealing with the question would soon have 
the cooperation of a President in favor of preserving the faith 
of the nation. 

Legislation, other than that relating to reconstruction, dur- 
ing the last year of the Johnson administration, contained much 
of interest. Congress repealed the cotton tax and established 
eight hours as a working day ; the right of expatriation was 
declared, and it was made the duty of the executive to give 
to naturalized citizens the same protection as to native-born ;j 
it was provided that in case of a vacancy in the office of Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States the senior' 
Associate Justice should discharge the duties until the vacancy 
should be filled ; the withdrawal of the Freedmen's Bureau 
from the several States in which it had been in operation was 
directed to take effect on January i, 1869. But the educa- 



The Fifteenth Amendment Z7Z 

tional department of the bureau, and the collection and pay- 
ment of money due to soldiers were continued. The Senate 
ratified the new treaty with China, which was a radical de- 
parture from the long-estabHshed policy of that country. She 
now accepted the principles of Western international law, and 
in return the treaty secured to the empire the privilege enjoyed 
by other nations under that law — the right of eminent domain 
over land and water, granted by concession to citizens or sub- 
jects of other Powers, and jurisdiction over persons and prop- 
erty therein, the right of appointing consuls at the ports of the 
United States, and the power of the government to grant or 
withhold commercial privileges and immunities at its own 
discretion, subject to treaty — China undertaking to observe 
corresponding obligations towards other nations. The treaty 
secured exemption from all disability or persecution on account 
of religious faith in either country. It granted the Chinese 
permission to attend our schools and colleges, and allowed 
Americans to establish and maintain schools in China. It 
made the coolie traffic illegal. It recognized the right of 
voluntary emigration, and pledged privileges as to travel and 
residence in either country. 

The making of this treaty was regarded as a brilliant achieve- 
ment in diplomacy. Mr. Burlingame, the American minister, 
won the confidence of the Chinese government and the respect 
"of the representatives of the European nations. When he 
announced his intention to return to the United States, he 
was asked to become the envoy of China to all the Western 
Powers. He accepted the commission. With him were as- 
sociated two Chinese gentlemen of the highest rank, and his 
suite altogether numbered about thirty persons. The cere- 
monies attending the reception of this formidable embassy 
excited a lively interest in the United States. 

The new year opened with two subjects of supreme impor- 
tance under discussion : an extension of the franchise and 
a return to specie payments. Many Republicans felt that 
the party had been placed in a false position by urging impar- 
tial suffrage in the South while Northern communities were 



374 A Political History of Slavery 

withholding the right from the colored people. The discus- 
sion began early in December on a proposition made by Mr. 
Henderson of Missouri to submit to the States a constitutional 
amendment in these words: "No State shall deny or abridge 
the right of its citizens to vote and hold office on account of 
race, color or previous condition." A similar proposition 
was offered in the House by Mr. Kelley. Although attempts 
were made in both Houses to amend the article first brought 
forward by Mr, Henderson, it passed through the furnace of 
debate but little changed. 

We are willing to face the question at all times [said the Cincin- 
nati Gazette] but we wish to notify those who think that it can be 
slipped in without a full popular canvass that they are cheating 
themselves. If we can ratify a universal amendment we can change 
our State constitution to secure the same thing.' 

Whereupon Governor Hayes remarked that he was prepared 
to discuss the question in any form before the people. The 
fight would be won in Ohio if a Republican Legislature could 
be carried. 

Senator Morgan of New York did not see that the plan was 
practicable. Universal suffrage had been voted down in a 
good many of the Northern States, and he supposed it would 
be out of order for the Legislatures of those States to accept 
the proposed amendment against the will of the people, A 
three-fourths majority could not consequently be secured." 
This view was entertained by many who favored the principle. 
They thought the time inopportune. The majority in Con- 
gress, voting down all motions calculated to endanger the 
proposition, carried the measure through, Mr. Dixon of Con- 
necticut moved to submit the resolution to conventions of the 
people instead of State Legislatures, which received the sup- 
port of the Democratic members. The reason for the motion 
was that the Legislatures had not been chosen for the purpose 
of changing the suffrage laws of the States; and that the peo- 

' January 4th. 

* Interview in the New York Herald, Mr. Morgan subsequently voted for the 
Fifteenth Amendment. 



The Fifteenth Amendment 375 

pie ought to have an opportunity to consider and pass upon 
the proposition disconnected from every other question. Mr. 
Boutwell, in an elaborate speech, took the extreme ground 
that the Constitution conferred upon Congress the power to 
regulate the franchise. That is, that the power to regulate 
elections was in the States, subject to the supreme control of 
the general government. He cited as specially pertinent the 
fourth section of the first article of the Constitution. Senator 
Sumner also held that this power belonged to the national legis- 
lature. In opposition to this claim was brought forward the 
practice which had conceded the right to the States. Mr. 
Eldridge of Wisconsin quoted Hamilton ' and Story in reply 
to Mr, Boutwell. The introduction of a clause into the na- 
tional Constitution, said Story, to regulate the State elections 
of the members of the State Legislatures, would be deemed a 
most unwarrantable transfer of power, indicating a premedi- 
tated design to destroy the State governments.* 

Senator Howard of Michigan, calling attention to the anom- 
aly in the Constitution of the United States, said that while 
to all other governments pertains the faculty of regulating 
and prescribing the qualifications of voters, it is a singular 
fact that no such faculty belongs to the government of the 
United States. The first clause of the Constitution, so much 
relied on by both Mr. Boutwell and Mr. Sumner, although it 
does not impart any powers to the States in reference to the 
qualification of electors, 

recognizes the undoubted fact that the States then possessed the 
right to prescribe qualifications for the electors within their own 
limits, and authorizes those same electors to be the electors of the 
Representatives in Congress, and of the electors of President and 
Vice-President, so that it has always been out of the power of Con- 
gress, under the Constitution, to prescribe who shall and who shall 
not vote for Representatives in Congress or for electors of President 
and Vice-President.^ 

' No. 59 of the Federalist. 

* Story, On the Constitution, Sec. 819. 

^Annual Cyclopadia, 1869. 



37^ A Political History of Slavery 

Mr. Warner of Alabama thought it competent for the people 
to change or amend the Constitution at any time. A substi- 
tute offered by him contained a proposition of universal suf- 
frage and universal amnesty. Mr. Willey of West Virginia 
thought the time had not come when the safety and public 
peace of the country would justify universal amnesty. The 
entertainment of this opinion by some and the zeal with which 
the proposition was pressed, invited the remark that the Re- 
publican party was seeking to perpetuate its power by ex- 
traordinary legislation. Mr. Wilson replied that it was well 
known that the whole struggle to give equal rights and privi- 
leges to all citizens had been an unpopular one, that it had 
been waged against passions and prejudices engendered by 
generations of wrong and oppression. His declaration that 
the contest had cost the Republican party a quarter of a mil- 
lion of votes was unquestionably warranted by the facts. 

The debate developed the hold the doctrine of a partnership 
of States still had on some of the Democratic leaders. Mr. 
Saulsbury of Delaware still held to this doctrine, which 
Senator Morton declared continued to exist as snow some- 
times exists in the lap of summer, when it is concealed be- 
hind the cliffs and the hedges and in the clefts of the rocks. 
Mr. Morton made clear a distinction too little noted: We 
have State rights, but have no State sovereignty, and never 
had. "The States have certain rights that are guaranteed to 
them by the Constitution of the United States, just as we 
have rights secured to us both by the federal and State con- 
stitutions." Mr. Hendricks thought there was a limit to the 
power to amend the Constitution, and that it was exceeded 
when Congress by amendment undertook to change our sys- 
tem of government. Mr. Drake declared that so far as amend- 
ment is concerned there is no limit. There is no word in the 
Constitution justifying any such conclusion. In one article it 
is declared that no amendment should be made before 1808 
to interfere with the African slave trade. After the lapse of 
eighty years the same spirit inspired the response that there 
was no power in the Constitution to make an amendment 



The Fifteenth Amendment 377 

which should give the right of suffrage to that long-enslaved 
race. 

Mr. Edmunds held that political privileges had already been 
secured to that race by the Fourteenth Amendment. He said : 

There is no qualification or limitation, but words the most com- 
prehensive possible in a statute or in a constitution are used. I 
believe that every citizen of the United States, in respect to whom 
political rights can be asserted at all, is entitled now to exercise 
political privileges; and therefore, if there is any man in the United 
States who was before that amendment entitled to exercise political 
privileges, that amendment extended to all the citizens similarly 
situated, without arbitrary and mere fanciful distinctions, such as 
color, nativity, education or of religion, an equal right. 

Mr. Drake said that if the construction urged by Senator Ed- 
munds was correct, then every single provision contained in 
every State constitution was wiped out by a single sentence 
in the Fourteenth Amendment, except the mere requirement 
that the man shall be a citizen of the United States. He did 
not regard that as a correct construction of the sentence. Mr. 
Edmunds retorted that he did not think it would be very 
frightful if it should happen that the clause in the constitution 
of New Hampshire requiring a certain religious test for hold- 
ing office, or the clause in any other State constitution limit- 
ing the right to vote to persons of a particular race, were swept 
away. "The question after all is what is the fair legal con- 
struction that can be fairly put upon language which is to be 
interpreted favorably and beneficially for the enlargement of 
the rights of men." Mr. Sumner, in confirmation of this 
view, declared that he, Mr. Yates, and others had defeated 
the amendment as it came from the House because it conceded 
to States the power to discriminate against colored persons; 
and that they had sustained the article as it finally stood, 
avowedly, because it did no such thing. 

That there might be no question as to the intent of Con- 
gress, it was determined to propose to the States another 
amendment which should incorporate impartial sufTrage in the 



37^ A Political History of Slavery 

Constitution as had been done tentatively in the reconstruc- 
tion laws. The proposition finally took the following form: 

Article XV., Section i. The right of citizens of the United States 
to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by 
any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servi- 
tude. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article 
by appropriate legislation. 

By the amendment Congress surrendered some of the power 
over representation in the South which it possessed under the 
Fourteenth Amendment. In case of the denial of suffrage to 
the negro by a State, the Fifteenth Amendment leaves the 
remedy by legal process in the Supreme Court. In the light 
of experience this is at best a precarious reliance for the estab- 
lishment of the principle of equity which the Congress hoped 
to make a part of the fundamental law. If ever recognized in 
spirit, it will be after education has accomplished its perfect 
work of enlightenment. The second section of the Four- 
teenth Amendment made representation in the national 
legislature and in the electoral college depend upon the ex- 
tent of suffrage in the Southern States. It was thus in the 
power of the white people to regulate the exercise of the right 
peacefully. The attempt to establish the principle of impar- 
tial suffrage by direct legislation has led since to much violence 
and bloodshed. 

The opinion that reform was needed as to the modes of ap- 
pointment to civil offices under the government found practi- 
cal expression in the House. Mr. Jenckes of Rhode Island 
introduced a bill ' which provided for competitive examinations 
precedent to appointment, to the exclusion of political require- 
ments and personal influence in making selections. The 
measure was to apply to minor offices, mostly clerkships, and 

' Mr. Jenckes was the author of three bills relating to the civil service. The 
first was introduced in the House in December, 1866 ; the second in March, 186S ; 
and the third in April, 1S69. 



Beginning of Civil Service Reform 379 

was merely tentative. It was an invasion of the politicians' 
right to the "spoils of office," and incurred vigorous opposi- 
tion. General Logan saw in it the possibilities of an aristoc- 
racy, not unlike that which West Point had given to the 
army. He was opposed to anything like a life tenure in the 
offices which the bill of Mr. Jenckes was designed to regulate. 
To this the author replied that it proposed that the incumbent 
of an office should hold it only during the efficiency of his 
service, which was an entirely different thing.' This did not 
fail to elicit the remark that to turn men adrift when by age 
or incapacity they were rendered incapable of other pursuits 
was a species of inhumanity for which the government ought 
not to become responsible. 

The criticism made by a highly intelligent observer of the 
working of the civil service was, that the head of a bureau, if 
experienced therein, should be better able than any one else 
to judge the qualifications of those proposed for service under 
him, and if he was the man he should be, his anxiety for the 
efficiency of his subordinate corps would be as good a safe- 
guard as could be had of a just examination. Allowing that 
the board proposed by Mr. Jenckes would do its work with 
average fairness and good judgment, the fact remained, which 
every experienced officer would attest, that examinations often 
prove deceptive as to the real merits of candidates. The most 
essential qualities in a public officer — the moral elements of 
the man, his character, his integrity, honor, discretion, practi- 
cal judgment, good temper and courtesy of demeanor — "are 
not taken note of in the book which records his intellectual 
fitness." It was right here that the appointing power has 
always especially needed to exercise a wise discretion ; and yet 
Mr. Jenckes's bill left the appointing power no option between 
any candidate that might stand high on the record and one 
lower down, though in point of character the latter might be 
immeasurably superior.'' These objections received considera- 
tion in the public discussions at a later day. 

The whole country felt relieved when the day arrived that 

• Cong. Globe, January 8, 1S69. - Cincinnati Chronicle, December 14, 1S68. 



380 A Political History of Slavery 

should witness the close of the ill-starred administration of 
Andrew Johnson. People gathered from all sections of the 
United States in unusual numbers, for the fame of the great 
soldier had lost none of its power of attraction. The newly- 
enfranchised people were represented as well as the more 
favored race. A company of fifty colored men, who walked 
all the way from North Carolina, attracted much attention ; 
while marching with other militia and the "boys in blue," the 
colored zouaves received a fair share of public applause for 
their good drill. General Grant, attired in a plain civilian 
suit of black and "Bismarck " colored gloves, rode in an open 
carriage with General Rawlins by his side. In a carriage im- 
mediately following were Mr. Colfax and Admiral Bailey. 
The reception accorded General Grant and Mr. Colfax was 
cordial and enthusiastic. 

Awaiting the arrival of this distinguished party, there was a 
vast audience in the Senate chamber. Edward Thornton, the 
British minister, and representatives of other governments in 
court costume were on the floor with Generals Sherman, 
Thomas, Hancock, Terry, Heintzelman, McDowell, Sickles 
and Butterfield and Admirals Farragut and Porter. The 
families and friends of the foreign ministers filled the diplo- 
matic gallery. In the gallery adjoining were the families of 
Mr. Wade, Mr. Colfax and General Grant. The other gal- 
leries were occupied mostly by ladies. The prevailing colors 
for dresses were blue and green, while the hats were white. 
Horace Greeley, in the press gallery, divided the attention of 
the curious on-lookers with the high officials on the floor. 
At twelve o'clock General Grant, accompanied by Senators 
Yates, Cragin and McCreery, entered, and seated himself in 
front of the Chief Justice, facing the whole house. He was 
apparently as calm and unconcerned as if in his own parlor. 
Mr. Wade took his place, rapped to order, and (omitting the 
usual formula) said : "The Vice-President of the United States 
will advance and be inaugurated " — whereat a smile lit up the 
faces of the old Senators. With becoming solemnity the oath 
was administered to the Vice-President, after he had spoken 



The Inauguration of Grant 381 

a few modest words, when Mr. Wade declared the Senate 
adjourned. 

Let us pause before the Vice-President takes up the gavel 
which his predecessor had laid down, to consider the place 
Benjamin F. Wade fills in history. With this 4th day of 
March, a continuous service of eighteen years, the most event- 
ful eighteen years in the history of the Republic, is brought to 
a close. It began in the time when the slave power dominated 
everything, when it claimed as its right the control of the gov- 
ernment, when the few who questioned the right did so at 
their personal peril. It was Benjamin F. Wade, the "manliest 
of men," as an admiring friend justly described him, who, by 
his courage and frank character, struck down the bludgeon, 
banished the code from the Senate chamber, and maintained 
the right of the minority in debate. Where now are Tocmbs 
and Benjamin and Davis and Mason and Hunter and Wigfall, 
who felt his power in debate and who withdrew from the 
national councils when the principles so long proclaimed by 
Wade had triumphed? Their fate was bound up in the history 
of the now fallen Confederacy. Their political foe is about to 
withdraw into an honorable retirement, poor in the goods that 
constitute wealth, but rich in the esteem of a grateful con- 
stituency; rich in the fame that ability, industry, indepen- 
dence, courage, integrity and unselfish devotion to the public 
interests win. In his long public career he has been incapable 
of any compromise of principle from considerations of per- 
sonal popularity, holding himself above all political intrigue to 
maintain or advance his own position. 

When Mr. Wade was first sworn in eighteen years agone he 
was in the prime of life, tall and vigorous of form, of grim vis- 
age, a man of open, frank, downright ways and plainness of 
speech. He retains his personal characteristics, but as he 
stands by the side of his successor at seventy years of age, his 
hair and eyebrows are snow-white, "his firm and fine-grained 
face smooth-shaven and florid; his unwinking, intensely black 
solemn eyes, in which lay the unquenchable fire under a thin 
veil of lashes, always ready to flash ; his form a little rounded 



382 A Political History of Slavery 

and fuller; erect, with no diminution of mental or physical 
force, stii generis, yet the peer of peers." ' As he descends 
from the platform and passes out of the chamber an historical 
epoch closes. New men of different education and experi- 
ence, of different type, in the world's present opinion, perhaps 
less narrow, are gradually succeeding to the control of the 
Senate. 

The new members are sworn in by Mr. Colfax, and then all 
pass out to the east portico, where the Chief Justice, holding 
the precious Bible of Washington, administers the oath of 
office to Ulysses S. Grant. There are the plaudits of the mul- 
titude, the roar of artillery and the reading of the inaugural 
of the new President. In all these ceremonies Andrew John- 
son has had no part. General Grant declined to approve any 
arrangement that would place him by the side of his predeces- 
sor, and so the latter and the members of his Cabinet remained 
within the Executive Mansion until half past twelve o'clock. 
Mr. Johnson then drove to the residence of John Coyle, leav- 
ing the Mansion in charge of General Schofield. 

"All laws will be faithfully executed," said the new Presi- 
dent, "whether they meet my approval or not. I shall on all 
subjects have a policy to recommend, but none to enforce 
against the will of the people." The intent of this declara- 
tion was undoubtedly understood by Mr. Johnson as he read 
it in the seclusion of his friend's house. 

The country having just emerged from a great rebellion [the in- 
augural continues], many questions will come before it for settle- 
ment in the next four years which preceding administrations never 
had to deal with. In meeting these it is desirable that they should 
be approached calmly, without prejudice, hate or sectional pride, 
remembering that the greatest good to the greatest number is the 
object to be attained. This requires security of person, property, 
and free religious and political opinion in every part of our common 
country, without regard to local prejudice. All laws to secure these 
ends will receive my best efforts for their enforcement. 

' B. F. Wade, by A. G. Riddle, p. 282. 



w 



President Grant's Cabinet 383 

Great emphasis is laid on questions of revenue and finance 
hich include the payment of the public debt. 



To protect the national honor, every dollar of government in- 
debtedness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise expressly stipu- 
lated in the contract. Let it be understood that no repudiator of 
one farthing of our public debt will be trusted in public place, and 
it will go far toward strengthening a credit which ought to be the 
best in the world, and will ultimately enable us to replace the debt 
with bonds bearing less interest than we now pay. 

This was quite up to the requirement of the public interest. 
A word of sound advice followed: "A united determination 
to do is worth more than divided counsels upon the method of 
doing." 

In accordance with the requirements of the new law, the 
Forty-first Congress organized on the 4th of March. James 
G. Blaine of Maine was elected Speaker by a vote of 135 to 57 
cast for Michael C. Kerr of Indiana. There was still a large 
Republican majority, but the greater strength of the minority 
was calculated to lessen the chances for improper legislation. 
Four men of national reputation entered the Senate for the 
first time and received recognition for superior attainments or 
experience in the administration of public affairs. Mr. Hen- 
derson of Missouri was succeeded by General Carl Schurz ; Mr. 
Wade of Ohio by Allen G. Thurman ; Mr. Dixon of Connec- 
ticut by William A. Buckingham, who was conspicuous as a 
"War Governor " ; Mr. Patterson of Tennessee by William G. 
Brownlow, whose loyalty to the Union the entire power of the 
Confederacy could not crush out. George Frisbee Hoar of 
Massachusetts and Eugene Hale of Maine first entered the 
national public service as members of the House. 

In the weeks preceding the inauguration of General Grant, 
the newspapers of the day were greatly perplexed over his 
reticence and the ignorance of his personal friends as to his 
plans of administration. They found the method of mili- 
tary headquarters projected into civil affairs and had many 
misgivings as to the final outcome. There was no mysterious 



3^4 A Political History of Slavery 

movement of staff officer or friend that they could form a 
conjecture upon. This unhappy situation did not lessen 
speculation a whit. Ingenious correspondents offered many 
conjectures of Cabinet appointments to be made by the incom- 
ing President, which served a useful purpose in the editorial 
rooms of their respective papers. One of the chief attributes 
of the editorial function is to seem to know all things and the 
reason therefor. It serves a useful purpose in the enlighten- 
ment of the world. If it stimulates the popular excitement, 
it also carries with it the power to soothe and lessen any dis- 
appointment by oracular explanations which carry with them 
the conviction that the editor is privileged to enter the inner 
temple. The first communication President Grant sent to the 
Senate, March 5th, falsified every prediction. It nominated 
for Secretary of State, Elihu B. Washburne of Illinois; for 
Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander T. Stewart of New York; 
for Secretary of the Navy, Adolph E. Borie of Pennsyl- 
vania; tor Attorney-General, E. Rockwood Hoar of Mass- 
achusetts; for Postmaster-General, John A. J. Creswell of 
Maryland; for Secretary of the Interior, Jacob D. Cox of 
Ohio. These were promptly confirmed by the Senate. No 
nomination was made for Secretary of War, which was in- 
tended as a compliment to General Schofield. 

When some one discovered that the law of September 2, 
1789, which prohibits the Secretary of the Treasury from be- 
ing concerned in the business of trade or commerce, rendered 
the New York merchant ineligible. General Grant sent a mes- 
sage to the Senate and asked that Mr. Stewart be exempted 
by joint resolution of the two Houses from the operation of 
the law. Senator Sherman introduced a bill to repeal so much 
of the act of 1789 as prohibits a merchant from becoming Sec- 
retary of the Treasury. There was a reluctance on the part of 
the Senate to disturb the prohibition, and although Mr. Stew- 
art offered to put his business in the hands of trustees during 
his entire term and to devote the proceeds to some charity, 
that body would not yield its scruples. Mr. Stewart resigned, 
whereupon George S. Boutwell was made his successor. 



President Grant's Cabinet 385 

Mr, Stewart and Mr. Washburne had notice of the inten- 
tions of General Grant toward themselves, but others first 
learned of their appointment to Cabinet positions after the 
President had taken action. They hesitated before accepting, 
whereat the head of the government, unfamiliar with the 
duties of his position, was surprised that "he could not order 
eminent civilians into office as he had been used to sending 
soldiers to a new command." ' Mr. Borie, a successful man of 
business, had no liking for official position, and he accepted 
the appointment to the Navy Department merely to give the 
President time to find a successor. He remained in office 
until June, when George M. Robeson of New Jersey was ap- 
pointed to succeed him. The commendations of the selections 
for Attorney-General and Secretary of the Interior were uni- 
versal. When Mr. Boutwell was appointed to correct the 
Stewart mistake, the editor of Harper s Weekly expressed the 
hope that the President would not think it necessary to "lose 
the services of a man so thoroughly able and so acceptable to 
the best judgment of the country as Attorney-General Hoar, 
merely because he is from the same State with the Secretary 
of the Treasury." " General Cox's accomplishment, ability 
and thoroughness in mastering details admirably fitted him 
for such a complex business office as the Interior Department 
had come to be. The country was treated to another surprise 
• in a few days when Mr. Washburne was nominated for Min- 
ister to France and Hamilton Fish of New York for Secretary 
of State. General John A. Rawlins, who had been chief of 
staff to the armies of the United States and the unselfish friend 
of the great commander, was made Secretary of War." If the 
Cabinet as thus constituted disappointed many politicians, it 
was acceptable to the country. General Grant, while choos- 

' Grant in Peace, by Adam Badeau, p. i66. 

' But Mr. Hoar retired in a year and was succeeded by Amos T. Akerman of 
Georgia. The President nominated him for Justice of the Supreme Court, but he 
had not made friends in the Senate and the nomination was rejected. Secretary 
Cox resigned also, and was succeeded by Columbus Delano. 

* General Rawlins filled the office until his death on September 6th. W. W. 
Belknap of Iowa was appointed his successor — a most unfortunate selection. 



386 A Political History of Slavery 

ing advisers to please himself, had selected men of high char- 
acter, with political convictions in harmony with what was 
best in the record of the Republican party.' Mr. Washburne 
was probably disappointed. He wished to be Secretary of the 
Treasury, and had fitness for the ofifice. He had an ambition 
to be President, and might naturally expect to become the 
successor of General Grant. He was sent abroad, distant 
from the field of political activity. It could never be said, 
while he was in Paris, that he was the directing mind of the 
administration. 

It was the privilege of the President to appoint his own suc- 
cessor as head of the army. Sherman of course became Gen- 
eral. Many hoped that General George H. Thomas would 
receive the promotion of Lieutenant-General, but the Presi- 
dent followed his personal preference and sent in the name of 
Philip H. Sheridan.' He had an admiration for Sheridan's 
ability as a soldier, and a brotherly affection for him as a man, 
while he never quite appreciated Thomas. This great Vir- 
//ginian, whose loyalty to his country stood the test of revolu- 
//tion when Lee's did not, was accorded recognition during the 
war by the Washington authorities with seeming reluctance, 
and this was a disadvantage that never could be overcome. It 
was a shadow the influence of which General Thomas always 
felt. Congress had inserted a clause in the general appropria- 
tion bill, March 3d, providing that there should be no new 
commissions, no promotions and no enlistments in any in- 
fantry regiment until the total number of infantry regiments 
should be reduced to twenty-five. March loth, the Secretary 
of War issued orders for the consolidation of regiments to 
meet the views of Congress. Under a plan of reorganization 
proposed by General Sherman, the active force of the line re- 
quired by the public service was 29,750 men. Four military 
divisions were created — that of Missouri commanded by Lieu- 



' The Cabinet "represents the new time. It stands for honor, unity, justice 
and peace." — George William Curtis in Harper's Weekly, March 20th. 

'■'General Schofield was promoted Major-General vice Sheridan, and C. C, 
Augur, Brigadier-General vice Schofield. 



i 



Repeal of Tenure-of-Office Law 387 

tenant-General Sheridan; the division of the South, Major- 
General Halleck; the division of the Atlantic, Major-General 
Meade; and the division of the Pacific, Major-General Thomas, 

There were many applicants for ofifice in Washington antici- 
pating the speedy removal of the adherents of Andrew John- 
son, but the tenure-of-office law served now to exclude the 
friends of those who devised it. The President, who chafed 
under this restriction of his power, refused to give any en- 
couragement to those who were seeking recognition. He let 
it be understood that until the law was repealed he should do 
nothing. Congressmen were anxious to submit the claims of 
their constituents to the President and the heads of depart- 
ments as speedily as possible. Accordingly, on the loth of 
March, Mr. Butler introduced a bill to repeal the obnoxious 
law, which was speedily passed by the House. It reached the 
Senate on the same day and was referred to the Judiciary 
Committee. Here a division arose which resulted in an agree- 
ment to recommend the suspension of the act until the next 
session of Congress, when it could either be repealed or some 
new law regulating the civil service should be enacted. Mean- 
while, by the suspension of the law, the administration would 
not be embarrassed or obstructed in its efforts to introduce re- 
form in the public service. 

The impotency of this conclusion was subjected to the mer- 
ciless criticism of Mr. Thurman, whose weight in debate was 
recognized and respected. Until it was thought necessary to 
check Mr. Johnson, there were but two interpretations thought 
of: one an interpretation that gives to the President an un- 
qualified power of removal, the other an interpretation that 
requires the concurrence of the Senate in the exercise of the 
power of removal. A third interpretation had lately been 
suggested — "that the President may exercise the power of re- 
moval, but subject to such regulations as Congress in its wis- 
dom may prescribe." This view Mr. Thurman held to be 
totally inadmissible. One of the two early interpretations 
must be correct. "If the Constitution vests the power in the 
President with the concurrence of the Senate, it is equally in- 



388 A Political History of Slavery 

admissible for Congress to restrain or limit or restrict a power 
thus vested in the President and Senate." This was not a 
subject for legislation but for constitutional interpretation. It 
had been stated by Mr. Trumbull that a majority of the 
Senators believed that the true interpretation of the Constitu- 
tion requires the concurrence of the Senate in the removal of 
an ofificer. If the bill to suspend the law should pass, would 
not the universal comment be, that the Senate of the United 
States interpreted the Constitution to mean one thing when 
one man was President, and to mean another thing when 
another man was President? ' 

Thus brought face to face with their inconsistency, Senators 
were glad to recommit the bill. On the 24th of March Mr. 
Trumbull reported back the bill with an amendment which 
was, in effect, a new measure, as it struck out the offensive 
clauses of the tenure-of-office act. It received the approval of 
the Senate, but on meeting with objections in the House it 
went to a conference committee where it took final shape and 
was passed by both Houses. 

The first section of the act provides that all persons appointed 
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, except 
judges, shall hold their ofifice during the term for which they 
were appointed, unless sooner removed by and with the advice 
and consent of the Senate, except as is provided in the next 
section. The second section authorizes the President, during 
a recess of the Senate, to suspend from office any officer ap- 
pointed by and with the consent and advice of the Senate, 
until the end of the next session of the Senate, and requires 
him within thirty days after the meeting of the Senate to make 
nomination in place of all suspended officers; if such nomina- 
tion is not approved, he shall, as soon as practicable, make 
another nomination, and if none of the nominations is ap- 
proved, his authority to suspend under the law expires with 
the session, and the old officer takes possession of the office. 
By the work of the conference committee the intent of Con- 
gress remained obscure. Thus in case of the suspension of an 

' Annual Cyclopcedia, 1869, p. 193. 



The Restoration of Virginia 389 

officer, it was asked, What would be the effect if the Senate 
did not refuse, and did not confirm an appointment made 
by the President? The Senate adjourns without action. Is 
the office then vacant, or is the suspended officer restored? 
Senator Trumbull replied that he is restored. General Butler, 
speaking for the House members of the committee of confer- 
ence, said the office is vacant. He believed in the spoils sys- 
tem. Mr. Trumbull was one of those who called in question 
the practice of the government ; who thought it prudent to 
check the perilous power lodged with the executive. Was it 
lessened by this new contrivance for regulating appointments? 
Would not the effect be to set up a new, a many-headed power 
in the Senate, to be at all times a menace and capable and 
willing to coerce the executive? Was not the decision of the 
early Congress which left the power to remove at pleasure with 
the President upon the whole the safer? Practice, according 
to Mr. Webster, had interpreted the Constitution. The acci- 
dent of Andrew Johnson invited a departure from that inter- 
pretation. 

The Virginians who had constituted the ruling class of the 
old commonwealth came to the conclusion at last that they had 
made a mistake in not accepting promptly and cheerfully the 
logical results of the revolution which they had helped to in- 
augurate. That they were not permitted, as soon as the war 
closed, to resume their relations to the national government 
and continue the old social order, they regarded as an infringe- 
ment of their constitutional rights and a gross usurpation on 
the part of Congress. Their pride rebelled against all con- 
ditions. They would recognize the negro only as an inhabi- 
tant under subjection. All whites who differed from them 
were aliens, or "scalawags," to be ostracised and to have no 
part in government. This was aristocracy shorn of power and 
without the trappings and tinsel of the days of slavery. 
Finally they awoke to the realization that while they were 
contemplating their grievances in retirement, others not so 
well qualified as themselves to deal with problems of state 
were formine a constitution for the commonwealth which 



390 A Political History of Slavery- 

would not only render them ineligible to any office, but de- 
prive them of the right of suffrage, and render them incompe- 
tent to serve on a jury, civil or criminal.' What they were, 
perhaps, once willing to mete out to others was being measured 
out to them. It was oppression and oppression due to their 
own folly. They awoke into new life and to better resolutions. 
They decided to pay some regard to others' rights and seek 
relief from a situation that was fast becoming intolerable. 
They clothed a committee of nine citizens with full power. 

This committee went to Washington to obtain relief. The 
House had already passed a bill for the restoration of Virginia 
under the obnoxious constitution. The members of the com- 
mittee made a plain statement of the facts to General Grant 
(who was not yet President) and to the Judiciary Committee of 
the Senate. A favorable public sentiment was created in the 
North with the help of leading Republican newspapers. Op- 
portunity was secured for the more intelligent classes in Vir- 
ginia to obtain a share in the work of restoration. In a little 
more than a month after his inauguration President Grant sent 
a special message to Congress recommending that provision be 
made by law for submitting the constitution that had been 
framed for Virginia to a vote of the people of the State, and 
for taking a separate vote upon such parts as had been objected 
to. The necessary legislation was provided not only for the 
action of Virginia, but also for Mississippi and Texas. In 
each case a Legislature, State officers and members of Congress 
were to be chosen on the day set apart for the adoption or 
rejection of the Constitution. The Legislatures were required 
to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment before the States could be 
admitted to representation in Congress. This condition was 
denounced by Democratic members as coercion. The Fif- 
teenth Amendment to the Constitution, Senator Bayard of 
Delaware declared, was the most dangerous claim of power, 
the most destructive to our system of government that ever 
was or could be devised. 

' Restoration of Virginia to the Union, by Alex. H. H. Stuart. Pamphlet. I 
follow the thread of Mr. Stuart's account. 



The Restoration of Virginia 391 

The election in Virginia was held on the 6th day of July and 
resulted in the success of the Conservative Republican party. 
The Underwood Constitution, as it was called, was adopted, 
but with the test oath and disfranchisements expunged. Gil- 
bert C. Walker, a man of high character, was elected Governor 
with a Legislature that fairly represented the people of the 
State. The election in Virginia was the first instance in which 
the best men of the South came forward to participate in re- 
construction, and it was interpreted to mean an acceptance of 
the situation in a sense much broader than that of mere acqui- 
escence in the demands of any political party. It was a break- 
ing away from a position that was inconsistent with new 
conditions — with the obligations of intelligent men to the 
whole community. The movement was not approved by the 
extreme Southern men of other States, who regarded it as 
unfavorable to their interests. 

It is the very respectability of the successful candidates [said a 
Southern writer] that is a fatal blow to the aspiration that, since the 
war, has lingered in the South, of preserving something of a politi- 
cal school and public sentiment distinctively Southern. It means 
the disintegration of anything like a peculiar Southern civilization; 
the abandonment at last, by the intelligence and respectability of the 
South, of the hope of rescuing anything considerable from the ruins 
of its old institutions, and of an opposition towards reconstruction 
looking for a reaction.' 

The influence of Chief Justice Chase was exerted to bring 
about a Union between the Walker Republicans and the con- 
servative men of the former parties of the State. He effected 
a division in the colored vote which, without his advice would 
have been almost entirely cast for H. H. Wells, the candidate 
of the radical party. The Legislature complied with the re- 
quirements of Congress as to the constitutional amendments. 
It elected as Senators John F. Lewis, the Lieutenant-Gov- 
•ernor, and Judge John W. Johnston, a relative of General J. 

• " Counting all its moral effects on the South, it is an event in history— the date 
of a new departure in the whole moral and political organization of the South." — 
E. A. Pollard in the New York Sun. 



392 A Political History of Slavery 

E. Johnston. Mr. Lewis was a consistent Union man during 
the war, while Mr, Johnston shared in the fortunes of the 
Confederacy. 

Our attention is invited to a novel state of political affairs in 
the North. The relation of men to parties was unsettled. There 
were Democrats who wished their party to take a new depar- 
ture in the spirit of the new time, and there were Republicans 
of Democratic origin in sympathy with this aspiration. There 
were Republicans who had not assented to the reconstruction 
policy of Congress who wished to see a reunion of the elements 
of the party under a conservative administration, whose atten- 
tion should be devoted principally to questions of finance 
and taxation. The Seward Republicans had hoped that 
Charles Francis Adams would be invited to take charge of the 
State Department, and they were grievously disappointed 
when the appointment of Mr. Washburne was announced. 
The Chicago Tribune declared it to be a mistake, and as early 
as May was lamenting the lost prestige of President Grant's 
administration. It was disturbed by the signs of a personal 
government, and insisted that the time required the services 
of men of experience — that statesmen should do the work of 
statesmen. Who were embraced in the recognized list of 
statesmen? Before the war Mr. Buchanan was and Mr. Lin- 
coln was not. In 1868 Mr. Adams certainly stood high among 
statesmen, but his voice was not heard in the campaign. And 
there were great issues involved, when it was the duty of patri- 
otic citizens to declare themselves. This was the time when 
he chose to separate himself from the Republican party. 
Could he consistently become a member of a Republican ad- 
ministration in 1869? Those who had' urged the appointment 
of Mr. Adams regarded the ties of party but lightly, and after 
a time cast them off altogether. Those who had expected 
overmuch in the morning of the administration continued to 
grumble. 

Others were impatient for the inauguration of a new policy. 
This, as originally formulated in the columns of the Cincinnati 
Volksblatt, embraced three propositions: The substitution of 



Liberal Republicans Appear 393 

a moderate revenue tariff for the "unjust and ruinous" pro- 
tective tariff of the war time; the establishment of a civil 
service instead of the existing "wild chase for office and dis- 
tribution of spoils," and a speedy return to specie payments. 
The Republican party, it declared, needed a new programme 
and the infusion of new ideas, if it was to secure a new tenure 
of efficiency. Its former task had been gloriously accom- 
plished. Let it now root out corruption and enter upon a new 
career of victory and greatness, which would regard politics as 
something different from a mere scramble for local offices. Let 
the Republican party bring to the consideration of commercial 
questions the same devotion as to the settlement of the slavery 
and suffrage questions.' The new movement was started in 
Boston. Soon afterward the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher pre- 
sided over a revenue-reform meeting held in Brooklyn. This 
participation in secular affairs provoked the caustic criticisms of 
"Veteran Observer" in the New York Times, who was an early 
champion of the protective policy. These differences will in- 
fluence party divisions later. 

Meantime, the administration, fairly launched, was receiv- 
ing assurances of public confidence. The States were rapidly 
ratifying the Fifteenth Amendment. The Republicans won 
at the spring election in Connecticut, doubtless to the great 
surprise of ex-Senator Dixon. The change of public sentiment 
in that State was very decided. When the question of equal 
suffrage was first made an issue there, it was defeated by a 
majority of seven thousand. In the spring of 1868 the Demo- 
crats elected the Governor by nearly two thousand majority. 
In the autumn the State was carried for Grant. In the spring 
of 1869 the Republicans elected the Governor and gained 

' The editor of the Volksblatt began advocating a new departure soon after the 
election of General Grant. A summing up of his views will be found in his issue 
of April 21, 1869. Following this, a call was circulated among leading Republi- 
cans for a meeting to effect a local organization on the basis given in the text. 
Among those active in the movement besides Mr. Hassaurek were Judge Stanley 
Matthews, Judge William M. Dickson and Lewis E. Mills. In the following year 
these liberal Republicans added another plank to their platform, namely, that 
local or municipal government should be non-partisan. 



394 A Political History of Slavery 

two members of Congress. After these later reverses, a 
national Democratic party apparently disappeared. That is, 
there was no unity of purpose in the ranks of the opposition 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. There was no distinct 
principle of public policy avowed. In the absence of this, the 
Bourbons in a majority of the States resumed the business of 
hurling epithets at the negro, and denouncing the doctrine of 
the equal rights of man. This was varied in some sections by 
an advocacy of unsound financial views, the ultimate aim of 
which was a partial repudiation of the public debt. There was 
no longer any insight, no longer any heroism in the Demo- 
cratic leadership. Whatever there was vital in the party was 
a reminiscence of Copperheadism, of the Knights of the Golden 
Circle, of the Sons of Liberty, which served as a rallying point 
for the disappointed and the disaffected. 

In an effort to get away from the past the Democrats of 
Massachusetts nominated John Quincy Adams, a former Re- 
publican, for Governor; but in other States they met with 
indifferent success in forming such alliances. The Democrats 
of Ohio in convention at Columbus, on the 7th of July, weary 
of defeat, resolved to take a new departure, and placed in 
nomination for Governor General William S. Rosecrans, the 
one of all the prominent army commanders who enforced the 
emancipation of the slaves with zeal, and most bitterly de- 
nounced the peace men of the North. "Tell the people of 
Ohio," said Rosecrans to a citizen of that State on the 14th 
of October, 1863, "that this army would have given a stronger 
vote for Brough, had not Vallandigham's friends over yonder 
killed two or three thousand voters the other day at Chicka- 
mauga. "' The only basis the Democrats had for the hope 
that this conspicuous Union general might accept the nomi- 
nation for Governor at their hands, was the known fact that 
the hostility of General Grant pursued him even now that 
peace had come.^ Rosecrans was at this time minister to the 

' General Garfield at Mount Vernon, Ohio, August 14, i86g. 
''General Adam Badeau relates that after General Grant had been elected, but 
before he was inaugurated as President, he caused Mr. Romero, formerly Mexican 



Democratic Conditions in 1869 395 

republic of Mexico. When he accepted the commission from 
President Johnson, a friend expressed to him the hope that he 
would not allow himself to be mixed up with politics. Gen- 
eral Rosecrans replied that he need have no fear — he would 
not compromise himself. He now declined the Democratic 
nomination for Governor. 

There was a great deal in the general conditions prevailing in 
the country to encourage the leaders of the Democratic party, 
who were making the campaign in Ohio in 1869 a national 
one. There was the unrest among the class of Republicans 
impatient for new issues. There was a feeling of uncertainty 
as to the business future, as prices of commodities fell and 
wages remained unadjusted. In the two years preceding 
June, 1869, there had been a fall of one half in the prices of 
wheat and flour and potatoes. The best superfine flour sold, 
in June, 1867, for $9.50 a barrel, and in June, 1869, for $4.75 
a barrel. While this lessened the cost of food to consumers, 
it was a hardship to the farmer. In most wheat-growing re- 
gions the producer received less than a dollar a bushel for his 
wheat, and that in depreciated money. Four years after the 
war the dollar was worth seventy cents, which was less than 
when the contest closed. This fact was patent to all, but all 
did not look to the cause. As the compensation of labor and 
capital in farming declined, there was a falling off in the de- 
mand for manufactured goods and a threatened decrease in 
day wages for those employed in other industrial pursuits. 
The worker in iron who received from five to twelve dollars a 
day, the mason who got five dollars and the common laborer 
who had commanded two dollars and a half a day, were dis- 
cussing the advisability of forming combinations as a means to 
cure the evils of the time and keep up their own wages. The 
farmer first yielded to the operation of natural laws. But the 

Minister to the United States, but now in official station at home, to be informed 
that the appointment of Rosecrans was distasteful to him. "The envoy thus 
would be unable in the short time he enjoyed his honors to execute any important 
diplomatic business, or to thwart the policy of the incoming government."— 
Grant in Peace, p. 155. 



39^ A Political History of Slavery 

effort of laborers in other occupations to resist these was calcu- 
lated to increase the cost of production, decrease the demand 
and add to the number of unemployed. It was difficult to 
change from the flush times of the past, and suffer the de- 
privations which were unavoidable in order to reach a sound- 
money basis, when the greenback or the bank-note received by 
the farmer or the professional man or the laborer would be 
worth one hundred cents in gold. 

Why was the greenback worth less in 1869 than in 1865? 
All other forms of public securities had advanced in value. 

This note [said Mr. Sherman] is as much a contract and promise 
as a bond, and its non-payment is as much an act of repudiation as 
the refusal of the payment of the principal and interest of the bond. 
There is no want of means to pay the notes. We have enough 
gold to pay one-fourth of them, and the application of the surplus 
gold alone would almost, if not entirely, restore the balance to a gold 
standard. The funding of a small portion of the residue, or even 
the right to fund them would maintain them at or near par. Why, 
then, is this not done ? The only reason is that public opinion, 
which controls Congress, will not allow it to be done; that the con- 
traction of the currency or even any measure to advance the market 
value of the currency without a reduction of the amount will derange 
prices, disturb the equities between the debtor and the creditor 
and reduce the nominal but not the real value of all commodities to 
the gold standard. These considerations are not to be overlooked 
and careful provisions ought to be made for them. But the stand- 
ing dishonor of the nation by maintaining in circulation her broken 
promises to pay without any provision for their payment, with gold 
lying idle in the Treasury and a surplus revenue of seventy millions, 
should be speedily put an end to. No party can be charged with 
this, for public opinion stronger than all parties forbade a reduction 
of the currency.' 

The people were also importing foreign merchandise in ex- 
cess of the products they exported. The state of trade for the 
ten months ending April 30, 1869, showed a balance of seventy- 
seven millions in gold against the country, and after that date 

' Speech at Canton, August 14th. Cincinnati Chronicle, August i6th. 



Democratic Conditions in 1869 397 

the preponderance of imports over exports greatly increased. 
This balance was being paid in our bonds. It was estimated 
by foreign bankers that during these ten months bonds to the 
amount of one hundred miUions of dollars had been sent 
abroad, which realized about seventy-two millions in gold. 
This one hundred millions, exported to settle the trade bal- 
ance, added six millions to the annual foreign demand for 
gold, which was estimated to be already sixty-five millions, to 
pay interest on United States bonds and other stocks which 
had been marketed abroad. But the time would come when 
the supply of bonds would be exhausted, and it behooved the 
statesmen to devise a fiscal policy to stand the strain of the 
future. Would the Republican party have the courage to 
grapple with the difficulties? 

The recognized leader of the Democratic party in the United 
States was Mr. Pendleton, the representative of an old and 
honored Virginia family, a gentleman of accomplishment and 
urbanity of manners, and a pubHc orator of universally recog- 
nized abilityo He 

is more than the Democratic candidate for the governorship of Ohio 
[said the New York Times]. He is the exponent of Democratic 
opinion and the hope of the great majority of Democrats throughout 
the country. Cheated out of the nomination for the presidency in 
the New York convention last year, they look to him confidently as 
their standard bearer in 1872. 

The greenback policy, which was Mr. Pendleton's bid for the 
presidency, was a living force in the country which the New 
York [4^t7r/^ attempted to counteract in this manner: 

If there is one Democrat more than another who, as a statesman 
and a political economist, is pledged, as his party is pledged, to re- 
store "specie payments," and to make a hard-money currency the 
sole legal tender, into which all forms of paper currency shall be 
speedily convertible at the will of the holder, George H. Pendleton 
is the man; and we fail to see what his opinions on a just interpre- 
tation of a statute authorizing the issue of the bonds which are not 
currency have to do with the matter. 



39^ A Political History of Slavery 

Mr. Pendleton spent some time in New York in the summer 
in conference with the political leaders of the East, and when 
he returned home and accepted the nomination for Governor, 
he endeavored to effect a reconstruction of the platform. It 
proved a bad piece of joiner work. In addressing his neigh- 
bors of Clifton he said : 

The whole policy of the administration should be reversed. Pay 
the debt, pay it honestly, according to the contract, pay it in money 
as valuable as that which was received for it; pay it in legal-tender 
notes; abolish the national-bank system; pay off the bonds on which 
they are founded; save the yearly interest; use every appliance of 
economy and management in advancing this policy. Then, when 
the debt is paid, when taxes are reduced, when seventy-five millions 
suffice for the government, when all property is subjected to a just 
rule of taxation, if it be advisable to contract the currency and re- 
sume specie payments, it can be effected without disaster, and the 
inevitable suffering can be borne.' 

The tone of this speech was more subdued than character- 
ized Mr. Pendleton's utterances in 1868. Then the bond- 
holders were told that if they did not accept paper currency in 
payment they might "go further and fare worse." Then the 
Union men of the country were charged with the crime of 
having created a vast public debt for the benefit of capitalists, 
and the question was asked the people, "Do you know what 
a national debt means?" A speaker who could keep out of 
sight the responsibility for rebellion, and describe the people 
who saved their country from dismemberment as engaged in 
mortgaging that country to a few, was quite capable of ex- 
plaining what a national debt means: "It means that the rich 
shall be richer and the poor shall be poorer. It means that 
untaxed capital shall pamper the idle with luxuries, while 
squalor shall preside in the cabin of the poor, and suffering 
shall make his life a constant death." " 

While Mr. Pendleton opposed the Fifteenth Amendment 

' Speech of September lo, 1869. Cincinnati Enquirer, September nth. 
' Pendleton at Bangor, Maine, August 20, 1868. 



Democratic Conditions in 1869 399 

he no longer made color or race the basis of objection. The 
colored man was taking on a certain character of respecta- 
bility, and respectability which appealed to politicians. He 
opposed the adoption of the amendment because it was a 
material, radical change in our system of government; be- 
cause it took away from the States without their consent 
that essential attribute of a self-governing community — the 
right to determine who shall exercise the right of sufTrage. 
He objected to it because, by the strongest implication, it con- 
ferred upon Congress and reserved to the States the right to 
exclude from the ballot persons of the white race because of 
their nativity, or their creed, or their want of education, or their 
poverty, and prohibited only the exclusion of a race as a race. 
The political situation in the country in 1869 was such as to 
subordinate all local questions to national issues. And this 
was sure to continue to be the case until there should be no 
longer a doubt as to the maintenance of the national honor 
untarnished. In far-away California the Democrats in State 
convention expressed the belief that the adoption of the Fif- 
teenth Amendment to the Constitution was "designed " to 
degrade the right of suffrage, and if adopted that it would 
"ruin the laboring white man." In Massachusetts the De- 
mocrats accepted the results of the war, including suffrage, 
without misgivings. In Iowa they opposed the Fifteenth 
Amendment and favored the payment of the public debt, 
"according to the strict letter of the contract"; but they 
added that they would "rather repudiate the same than see it 
made the means for the establishment of an empire upon the 
ruins of constitutional law and liberty." They also looked to 
the final abolition of the banking system, "that pernicious 
plan for the aggrandizement of a few at the expense of the 
many." In Wisconsin they rejoiced that slavery was dead. 
The course of the Democrats of Pennsylvania was similar to 
that of their brothers of Ohio. Failing to secure General Hal- 
leck's acceptance of the nomination for Governor, they selected 
Asa Packer, who fraternized with Mr. Vallandigham during 
the war, to make the canvass against General Geary, whose 



400 A Political History of Slavery 

administration as Governor had been highly satisfactory. 
There was no change from the Bourbonism of the past. The 
platform declared that the party was opposed to conferring 
upon the negro the right to vote. Samuel J. Tilden, sup- 
ported by Tammany, controlled the New York State conven- 
tion held at Albany. Here the spectre of repudiation did not 
appear. The convention declared for the equal taxation of 
federal securities, for the payment of the debt according to 
the contract and for the restoration of a sound constitutional 
currency. The Fifteenth Amendment was denounced as de- 
basing and demoralizing to the representative system. 

Mr. Tilden exhorted his friends to let bygones be bygones, and 
he declared for what he called white labor as against the Chinese 
immigrant and the colored citizen. But he did not remind his 
friends that the bygones, including a bloody war, were the work of 
Democrats, and that certain dogmas of the party must be abandoned 
because the people had spurned them; nor did he show any con- 
sciousness that in a country of which a seventh of the population 
is colored, and which invites immigration, to declare for one color 
or race against another is to forbid fair play and to encourage 
hatred, confusion and anarchy.' 

Naturally the party opposed the adoption of the new Constitu- 
tion which made suffrage equal. 

Governor Chamberlain was re-elected in Maine in Septem- 
ber, notwithstanding there was a Prohibition ticket at the 
polls, by a good majority. The result proved there was not 
the dissatisfaction with the administration of President Grant 
asserted by the opposition press. The States of Pennsylvania, 
Ohio and Iowa were carried by the Republicans in October, 

^Harper's Weekly, Oct. 9, 1869. The editor in an earlier issue (Sept. 25th) 
said : " If the same vote were not sure to be thrown against the party in New 
York, is it supposable that the Democrats would insist upon the present inequality 
of the suffrage in this State ? The Democratic party endeavors by every kind of 
fraud, as at the last election in New York, to secure the voting of the most igno- 
rant foreigners, who have, and can have, no possible knowledge of the merits 
or tendency of the issues ; is it conceivable that such a party opposes the equal 
voting of intelligent native citizens because they are colored?" 



The Elections of 1869 401 

which showed that the people were not prepared to turn the 
control of public affairs over to a party whose favorite leaders 
were committed to an unsound financial policy and to con- 
tinued disturbance of the general tranquillity of the country by 
opposition to equal rights. The position of the two parties in 
regard to these two issues was directly hostile. The Demo- 
crats made a most determined effort to win success in Pennsyl- 
vania and Ohio, counting much on the dissatisfaction and 
apathy in the ranks of an administration party immediately 
following the inauguration of a new President. Governor 
Geary was re-elected by a majority of from four to five thou- 
sand ; Governor Hayes by a majority of over seven thousand. 

In New York the Democratic candidates for Secretary 
of State and Comptroller were chosen. General Sigel and 
Horace Greeley were respectively the Republican candidates. 
Great indifference prevailed throughout the State. There was 
a falling off of 208,334 votes as compared with the returns of 
1868, which, it was believed, included a large fraudulent vote 
in New York City. The result of the election in that State 
was interpreted to mean: (i) an arbitrary discrimination 
against the equal political rights of the citizens of the States; 
(2) the continuance of the power of the corrupt Tammany 
ring under Tweed, which already controlled the State govern- 
ment ; (3) the control by legislative enactment of all the great 
interests of the city — its police, its health, its fire and other 
departments ; (4) a change in the registry law, in order that 
frauds at the polls might be facilitated.' 

A State election in Tennessee on the 6th of August resulted 
in a radical change — in the restoration to political power of 
that part of the white population compromised by participa- 
tion in the rebellion. The Republicans were divided on the 
question of the continued disfranchisement of white citizens, 
and two candidates for Governor were presented for the suf- 
frages of the party — Mr. Stokes, who was the regular candi- 
date, and Mr. Senter, independent. The latter received the 
support of Senator Brownlow, who, to the surprise of his party 

' Harper's Weekly, November 20th. 



402 A Political History of Slavery 

friends, changed his attitude towards the former rebels and 
aided materially in their restoration. The registry law was 
generally disregarded and everybody voted. The excess of 
votes over the number of voters registered must have been 
nearly fifty thousand. Mr. Senter was elected Governor and a 
Democratic Legislature was secured which insured a United 
States Senator to that party in place of Mr. Fowler. A vig- 
orous but futile effort was made to send Andrew Johnson to 
the Senate. Henry Cooper, a prominent citizen with Whig 
affiliations, was chosen instead of the ex-President. 

The people of the South were making such progress as their 
limited means admitted. In sections where there were tolera- 
tion and reasonable security, capital from abroad was being in- 
vested for the development of the natural resources. The 
colored people were working well and advancing in education 
and in a knowledge of what was required to make their in- 
dependence in every sense real and beneficial. That there 
should be evidences of degradation and actual misery was to 
be expected. That the freedmen were subjected to many and 
cruel wrongs was unfortunately true. This condition could be 
ameliorated only by the interposition of moral influences. The 
white people had need first to be educated to that sense of 
obligation as citizens which applies to all, without class or race 
distinction, the same rule.' Thus the people of Georgia, after 
adopting a constitution in conformity with the requirements of 
the reconstruction laws, unseated the colored members of the 
Legislature, and admitted to seats some members who were 
disqualified by the third clause of the Fourteenth Amendment 
of the Constitution, an article which they had contributed to 

' Bearing on the question of race prejudice, this incident may be related : 
Colored delegates were admitted to the labor convention held in Philadelphia 
in August, on a footing of full and perfect equality. " What was more grati- 
fying, though not half so surprising, was that no speeches were so well worth 
listening to as those of these same delegates or contained nearly so much good 
sense and good feeling. The remarks of one of them about the national debt, 
concerning which there seemed to be a good deal of confusion, if not unsound- 
ness in the convention, were especially worthy of note." — The A'aiion, August 
26, 1860. 



Progress in the South 403 

ratify. The question of the right of a negro to hold office in 
that State was settled by a judicial decision of the Supreme 
Court on the 22d of June. But before the violation of the 
amendment could be corrected and the State properly repre- 
sented in Congress, the subject of reconstruction, on recom- 
mendation of Governor Bullock and the President, had to be 
reopened. At the close of the year the State was under the 
military authority of the United States, awaiting the assem- 
bling of the Legislature as originally constituted in January. In 
a report submitted on the 14th of August, General Terry said 
that he had reluctantly come to the conclusion that the situa- 
tion in Georgia demanded the interposition of the national 
government, in order that life and property might be pro- 
tected, the freedom of speech and political action secured, 
and the rights and liberties of freedmen maintained. The 
worst of crimes went unpunished. While many of these had 
no political bearing, yet some were prompted by political ani- 
mosity, and most of the numerous outrages upon freedmen 
resulted from hostility to the race, induced by their enfran- 
chisement. 

The radical Republicans in Mississippi were not free from 
intolerance. They were charged with the responsibility of 
forming a constitution, and made it so proscriptive in its 
provisions that it was rejected at the polls and condemned by 
President Grant and Congress. It was resubmitted in such 
form as to permit of the rejection of the obnoxious provisions. 
The Republicans were divided into two classes— radicals and 
conservatives. The former nominated James L. Alcorn, and 
the latter Judge Louis Dent, for Governor. The President 
frankly informed Judge Dent, who was his brother-in-law, that 
he would have to throw the weight of his influence in favor of 
the regular or radical Republican party. But he expressed 
the hope that before the election there would be such conces- 
sions on each side as to unite all in favor of reconstruction and 
in support of one ticket. Judge Dent in his reply said that 
the conservatives were among the first in the South to organ- 
ize on the Republican platform and to advocate the civil and 



404 A Political History of Slavery 

political equality of all men. They were represented in the 
Chicago convention and some of them had been appointed to 
office by the President. The radical politicians had become 
obnoxious to the people of Mississippi because of their pro- 
scriptive antecedents and aggressive policy. That policy, he 
declared, 

consists not only in the continual advocacy of proscription, but in 
a time of profound peace of such revolutionary doctrines as excite 
and direct against the white men of the South and their families a 
most dangerous animosity — such animosity, indeed, which with con- 
tinuation of the same fuel would inevitably lead to a black man's 
party and a war of races. 

He denied honesty of purpose to his opponents or love of Re- 
publican principles and said the politicians sought to "alienate 
from the planter the time-honored confidence and affection of 
the colored race, in order that the new political element, under 
the banner of Republicanism, might be entirely controlled and 
subordinated to their own purposes of power and aggrandize- 
ment." The Democrats who participated in the election voted 
the conservative ticket. The whole number of votes cast for 
Governor was 114,283, of which Alcorn received 76,186 and 
Dent 38,097. The successful party controlled the Legislature. 
The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were ratified. 
General Alcorn, who received the vote of most of the Demo- 
cratic members, was elected to the Senate for the full term 
beginning March 4, 1871. General Adelbert Ames was chosen 
Senator for the term beginning March 4, 1869, and H. R. 
Revels, a colored member of the State Senate, for the unex- 
pired term which began in 1865. The State was re-admitted 
on the 17th of February, 1870, and the first colored member 
of the Senate of the United States was soon after sworn in. 

General Reynolds, commanding in Texas, reported an im- 
provement in social conditions in that State. Juries were 
showing a disposition to punish for murder and other high 
crimes. During the first nine months of 1869 three hundred 
and eighty-four murders were committed. There was encour- 



Progress in the South 405 

agement in the assurance that "the number of crimes of this 
nature is steadily diminishing." The constitution framed in 
conformity with the reconstruction laws met the approval of 
Governor A. J. Hamilton and other conservative Republicans. 
The radical faction, under the lead of Edmund J. Davis, en- 
deavored to induce Congress to set it aside, but failed. Gov- 
ernor Hamilton was accused of forming a coalition with the 
Democrats which lessened his influence. Davis was elected 
Governor, while all parties were fairly represented in the Legis- 
lature. Only ten negroes were returned as members of that 
body. J. W. Flanagan and Morgan C. Hamilton, Republi- 
cans, were elected Senators. The State was re-admitted to 
representation in Congress on the 29th of March, 1870. The 
first section of the free constitution of Texas acknowledged 
the Constitution of the United States to be the supreme law, 
and declared that the State constitution was framed in har- 
mony with and in subordination to it. There was no separate 
and distinct sovereignty. 

The time of Congress before the hoHdays was largely taken 
up with the case of Georgia, and with consideration of a con- 
dition of lawlessness in other States. Senator Warner of Ala- 
bama introduced a bill to remove all political disabilities from 
all persons who were citizens of that State on the ist of De- 
cember, 1869. Mr. Stewart of Nevada offered a resolution in 
favor of universal amnesty after the ofificial declaration of the 
adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment. 

On the i6th of December a resolution offered by Mr. Gar- 
field declaring that the proposition, direct or indirect, to re- 
pudiate any portion of the debt of the United States was 
unworthy of the honor and good name of the nation, was 
adopted ; one vote only was cast in the negative — that of 
Thomas L. Jones of Kentucky. Some Democrats voted for 
the resolution ; others abstained from voting. The occasion 
for this action was the indulgence in wild talk about repudia- 
tion in the House by William Mungen of Ohio. It was 
thought best to forestall the effect of such sentiments by an 
authoritative declaration. 



4o6 A Political History of Slavery 

The death of Senator Fessenden in September and of Henry 
J. Raymond in June removed from the field of American 
politics two very prominent figures who will be specially re- 
membered for the share they had in moulding and controlling 
public sentiment during the great contest with the South. 
Mr. Raymond as a journalist was creative and original. He 
worked under the inspiration of a high ideal. He understood 
the full meaning of the responsibility of the editor to the com- 
munity and lived up to it. He wrote with remarkable facility. 
As a controversialist he was ready, adroit and fair. His pub- 
lic service was incidental to his career in journalism, and was 
somewhat impaired by the embarrassment of his relations to 
Mr. Seward as a member of the Johnson administration. 

William Pitt Fessenden's place is in the front rank of Amer- 
ican statesmen. He brought to the consideration of public 
questions a thoroughly disciplined and logical mind and great 
conscientiousness. He lacked in sentiment, perhaps, and 
often in debate displayed irritability. At such times his caus- 
tic language left a rankling wound. A proud and sensitive 
soul like Sumner, himself imperious, could not brook the cut- 
ting speech of Fessenden, and they were never friendly. And 
yet the eulogy which Sumner pronounced in the Senate upon 
the public services of the dead statesman was a noble one. He 
made this graceful reference to their conflicts: "His words 
warmed as the Olympic wheel caught fire in the swiftness of 
the race. If on these occasions there were sparkles which fell 
where they should not have fallen, they cannot be remembered 
now." His most conspicuous public service was as successor 
of Mr. Chase as Secretary of the Treasury, for which position 
his experience in financial legislation admirably qualified 
him. 

On the 30th of March, 1870, Secretary Fish officially an- 
nounced that the Fifteenth Amendment had been ratified by 
the Legislatures of thirty States and was therefore a part of 
the Constitution. The President made this the occasion to 
send a special message to Congress, giving advice to the whole 
people : 



Fifteenth Amendment Adopted 407 

Institutions like ours, in which all power is derived directly from 
the people, must depend mainly upon their intelligence, patriotism 
and industry. I call the attention, therefore, of the newly-enfran- 
chised race to the importance of their striving in every honorable 
manner to make themselves worthy of their new privilege. To the 
race more favored heretofore by our laws I would say. Withhold no 
legal privilege of advancement to the new citizen. The framers 
of our Constitution firmly believed that a republican government 
could not endure without intelligence and education generally dif- 
fused among the people. The Father of his Country, in his Fare- 
well Address uses this language: " Promote, then, as an object of 
primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowl- 
edge. In proportion as the structure of the government gives force 
to public opinion it is essential that public opinion should be en- 
lightened." ... If these recommendations were important 
then, with a population of but a few millions, how much more im- 
portant now, with a population of forty millions and increasing in 
a rapid ratio. I would therefore call upon Congress to take all the 
means within their constitutional powers to promote and encourage 
popular education throughout the country, and upon the people 
everywhere to see to it that all who possess and exercise political 
rights shall have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge which 
will make their share in the government a blessing and not a 
danger. 

Interesting demonstrations follow^ed the official proclamation 
of Secretary Fish. The American Anti-Slavery Society held 
a rejoicing meeting in New York and disbanded, its work 
being completed. "At this hour," wrote Mr, Whittier, "re- 
membering the mighty cost of the final triumph which we cele- 
brate, let no word of boasting escape us. Not unto us belongs 
the consummation, but unto Him who answered the sorrow- 
ful sighing of the prisoners with 'terrible things in righteous- 
ness.' "' The colored people in Brooklyn were addressed on 
the occasion of their celebration April nth, by Henry Ward 
Beecher and Senator Revels. Mr. Beecher spoke in the spirit 
of the letter of Mr. Whittier: 

• Letter to chairman of the committee of the Anti-Slavery Society, March 4th. 



4o8 A Political History of Slavery 

That great revolution sprang from the hand of Almighty God, 
and to that same hand we commit this precious liberty, now made 
symmetric and complete the nation over. And may our example 
be auspicious to all struggling islands and continents, until round 
and round the globe there shall be one heart, one liberty and one 
universal brotherhood in man. 




CHAPTER XIII 

THE FAILURE OF RECONSTRUCTION. 



i U'^^xx^^^ ^^ 



/U/M/ 



By JOHN J. HALSEY, Professor of Political Science, 
Lake Forest University. 

THE eight years of Grant's administration cover the con- 
gressional experiment of Reconstruction in the South. 
The series of legislative acts, closing with the Fifteenth 
Amendment, was followed by a series of efforts to apply the 
law to the situation. These eight years witnessed the attempt 
of the Republican North to force the "solid" white South to 
accept its interpretation of the results of the war — an inter- 
pretation based upon logic rather than on the Constitution. 
They began in the rule of the Freedmen's Bureau and the 
carpet-bagger, and they ended in the rule of the Southern 
white man, brought about by all the forces of silent obstruc- 
tion, of which the Kuklux Klan was but one. Could the 
South have met the earlier efforts for its reconstruction — as 
planned by Lincoln and carried on by Johnson — in a broad 
and generous spirit, and extended to the negro the same 
tolerance that the rebel himself was granted, much of the evil 
of those terrible eight years might have been averted. Or had 
President Johnson conceded the authority of Congress in the 
work of reconstruction in the same degree as it was afterwards 
conceded by President Grant, those dark eight years in our 
national record might have been written in bright colors. But 
the Southern people being such as they were, with an heredi- 
tary bias against the negro in any other position than that of 



410 A Political History of Slavery 

a menial, and a deep-rooted conviction of his political and 
social incompetence, it was not to be expected that they would 
co-operate with the most conciliatory of their conquerors in 
the restoration of the whole South. Nor is it likely that any 
less mighty personality than that of Lincoln could have guided 
so generous a reconstruction policy as he had outlined, amid 
the pitfalls of Northern aggressiveness and Southern insub- 
ordination. A reconstruction policy that should have con- 
sidered the Southern States out of federal touch by their own 
acts ; decided their status as conquered to be that of territories ; 
and consequently admitted them to that constitutional posi- 
tion as candidates for subsequent statehood, was too simple a 
solution to be obvious at that time. The ignoring of congres- 
sional initiative by Johnson, and the subsequent repudiation 
of his really statesmanlike policy by an angry Congress, not 
only wasted valuable years, but had a most unhappy effect 
upon an embittered community, thus made the victim of 
cross-purposes at Washington. The spirit that had dictated 
in nearly every Southern Legislature the adoption of restraining 
laws, which if carried out, would have reduced the recently 
liberated blacks to a condition of peonage, was equally mani- 
fest in a sullen acceptance of the Fourteenth Amendment with 
a tacit reservation to defeat its purposes. A second time the 
South failed to seize, by a generous but shrewd recognition of 
the negro, an advantage which might have been hers, and 
which would have established a genuinely solid South against 
Northern dictation. White-suffrage laws were among the first 
legislative acts of the recovered sovereignty, and a speedy 
vengeance followed in the Fifteenth Amendment — made a 
part of the Constitution as the price of sovereignty. 

Georgia was the last of the States recently in rebellion to 
re-enter the Union. After many delays and evasions, her 
Legislature having accepted the reconstruction acts and the 
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, Congress admitted 
her to full rights as a federal State by act of July 15, 1870. 
Curiously enough, this last of the recalcitrants to accept the 
somewhat drastic conditions of rehabilitation was the first of 



The Failure of Reconstruction 41 1 

the reconstructed States, beyond the border belt, to shake off 
the carpet-bag rule, and to assert the principle of home rule. 
In December of the same year in which she was declared to 
have met all the conditions of reconstruction the Democrats 
carried the State elections, the carpet-bag Governor, Bullock, 
threw up his ofifice for its unexpired term and led his Northern 
henchmen home, and from that day to this Georgia has man- 
aged her own affairs. All through these thirty and more 
years she has shown a more enlightened policy toward her 
black citizens than any other member of the former Confed- 
eracy, steadfastly resisting all proposals for "understanding" 
clauses and "grandfather" proscription. 

Tennessee, happier than her sisters, had never come under 
the direful "reconstruction" policy fathered by Congress, but 
the government established there by the executive was allowed 
to stand, probably to avoid the embarrassment of repudiating 
a "State" from which the dominant party in Congress had 
already taken its Vice-President. Since so many of her white 
population had given the sternest and most devoted evidence 
of loyalty to the Union, and her blacks were only one fourth 
of the total population, there was no standing-ground for a 
carpet-bag government, and Tennessee escaped that devastat- 
•ing curse. All the other Southern States once in rebellion 
experienced that tyranny, in various degrees of intensity 
and for varying periods of years. Virginia, "the mother 
of presidents," was the first to shake herself free, and on 
the 27th of January, 1870. General Canby turned the State 
government over to the chosen representatives of her own 
people. Georgia and North Carolina accomplished the same 
result later in that year, and their success gave hope and cour- 
age to the remaining States. Georgia and Virginia had suc- 
ceeded in spite of a negro population that verged on one half 
of the total, while the percentage in North Carolina was only 
one in three. But in the remaining States the percentage of 
blacks was very large, with the exception of Texas with one 
third and Arkansas with one fourth. In all the other States 
east of Texas the blacks were in the majority; in South 



412 A Political History of Slavery 

Carolina and Mississippi overwhelmingly so. Consequently Ar- 
kansas, Alabama and Texas did not come to their own control 
until 1874, while South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi and 
Louisiana must await a radical change of policy at Washington 
for their deliverance, two years later. 

What were the conditions between 1865 and 1876, that 
made possible these arien governments, which the South en- 
dured with such loathing, antagonized with such insidious and 
persistent methods, and at last overthrew with so great diffi- 
culty and so great rejoicing? The war, which had been waged 
to prevent the secession of certain States because their "pe- 
culiar institution " was discussed, censured and perhaps en- 
dangered by Northern opinion, had resulted logically in the 
destruction of slavery. Four millions of newly created free- 
men were the wards of the nation that had set them free. 
But the act of emancipation could not remove them from the 
old environment when it destroyed the old status. In truth, 
it could not prevent the creation of a worse environment on the 
old spot. The amiable and almost patriarchal attitude of the 
master to the slave was changed in a twinkling into the sus- 
picious and hostile attitude of a despoiled and humiliated 
householder toward the innocent yet complacent cause of his 
misfortunes. Called upon to go on living beside these igno- 
rant and lazy and ungoverned masses of men and women, no 
longer as masters but as only equals in the eyes of the law, 
the Southern white men, who could not now command, but 
must entreat, were unable to establish their new orientation. 
All their instincts of good government and of order as well 
as those of dominance and of command prompted them to 
rule and master these new social forces which swelled so 
ominously about them. Forgetting, in their thought of self- 
defence and preservation, that these people had just been 
snatched from their grasp at a fearful cost to the deliverers, 
they sought in the interests of their own class to restore the 
old social order under another guise. 

The negro, on the other hand, found himself in a new 
world, face to face with hard facts. His former means of sup- 



The Failure of Reconstruction 413 

port in a life that called for no prevision on his part had ceased, 
and the one possession remaining to him, for which he had in- 
deed exchanged all the material comforts of life, was liberty. 
Accustomed, through centuries of dependence, to take no 
thought for the morrow, nor even for the passing day, he 
could not realize that the new liberty had thrust upon himself 
all that industrial responsibility which had hitherto been as- 
sumed for him by the superior race, and that if he did not 
work neither should he eat. Liberty was to him, not an ab- 
straction, but a very concrete thing, and involved the ability 
to roam at will, and to enjoy in lazy contemplation the one 
thing that he could realize, — cessation from forced labor under 
the eye of the overseer. But the land, which the whites in 
large part still owned, needed his labor, and he as a bread-con- 
sumer needed to become a bread-winner, under some form of 
contract. Much time and infinite patience were required if 
these economic infants — for both white and black were equally 
untrained for a world in which the free contract ruled — were 
to work out their common problem, and begin life anew in 
relations of mutual confidence and dependence. 

Into this problem, already sufficiently perplexed by the 
nature of the necessary factors, was now introduced the 
•Northern adventurer, ready not so much for its solution as for 
its exploitation for his own advantage and to his own glory. 
With him, but with far different purpose, came the Freed- 
men's Bureau, and behind them both and supporting both 
marched the provost-marshal and his guard. Of the first of 
these intruders little that is good can be said. He came to 
make his fortunes in the prostrate land, and in the multitude 
of negro votes — relatively larger than a counting of heads 
would show, through the disfranchisement of so many whites 
— he found his opportunity. He became, first the friend, then 
the leader, finally the political master of the blacks, who set 
him in all positions of power, and shared with him the triumph 
over the old masters. The Freedmen's Bureau was the out- 
come of a determination on the part of the North to preserve ^ 
the helpless black wards of the nation from the evil results of 



414 A Political History of Slavery 

enfranchisement due to their own improvidence and simplicity. 
Into its hands was delivered the industrial care of the race, 
and for its disposal were allotted all lands abandoned or con- 
fiscated. In the main the heart of its agents was right and 
true, but many and fatal were the mistakes of the head which 
short-sighted and ignorant zeal committed. This great agency 
of humanity and benevolence became as much detested by the 
whites of the South as was its disreputable companion, the 
carpet-bagger. Many noble men and women, from General 
Howard at the head down to a great multitude of the rank 
and file, served as its agents and brought blessing and hope 
and a sturdier hold on life to the blacks committed to their 
care.' But their devotion was lost sight of at the view of 
mismanagement and intolerance in the general administration, 
and an almost utter failure to realize that the blacks must 
either establish some rational modus vivendi v/ith the old 
masters or perish politically before the arts of the superior 
race. It would have seemed a cardinal proposition for any 
policy of readjustment that conciliation, tolerance and mutual 
concession alone could harmonize two alienated races that 
were forevermore to dwell together. But that these people 
must forevermore dwell together seemed never to shape itself 
in the conscious thought of those who claimed the disposal of 
their destinies. All programmes seemed of temporary import 
and value. 

The State and local governments established by negro 
suffrages, conducted by Northern adventurers, largely of the 
carpet-bagger type, and maintained by federal troops, aroused 
all the latent belligerency of the Southern whites. Many 
now looked back as to a happier day to the time before recon- 
struction when the South was divided into military districts 
and ruled directly by federal generals. Their rule, though 
harsh, at least was straightforward and honest, and the South 
was not plundered. Now, Legislatures of Northern white men 
and Southern negroes, equally exempt from the burdens of 
taxation, voted away the property of the old masters in such 

' Atlantic Monthly, vol. Ixxxvii., p. 354. 



The Failure of Reconstruction 415 

fashion as speedily reduced many of them to beggary and 
saddled the States with enormous public debts. Mr. Chamber- 
lain, the ablest and the best of the reconstruction Governors, 
who strove in vain against the tide of corruption in South 
Carolina, has recently pictured the orgy of public spoliation 
and plunder through which that State was compelled to pass 
before 1876.' 

Unable to meet this combination of ignorance and dishon- 
esty in a fair fight at the polls, where they were in a hopeless 
minority, the Southern white men met it by the secret forces 
of intimidation and coercion. The Fortieth Congress had 
thought it necessary in the Fifteenth Amendment to give the 
negro the ballot, to the end that he might protect himself and 
the Republican party against any further aggression at the 
hands of the former masters. The gift had proved a curse 
rather than a blessing, and had delivered the negro into the 
hands of his enemies. His ignorance and credulity had been 
made use of by the carpet-bagger to overthrow the political 
ascendency of the old masters; they in turn determined to 
play upon those same traits to recover the control. The 
agency principally made use of for this purpose had come into 
existence in the only reconstructed State that had not felt the 
. tyranny of carpet-bag government. Originating in Tennessee 
in 1866, in the semblance of a Greek letter society, and for the 
harmless purpose of promoting foolery of the "high jinks" 
order, the Kuklux Klan, with its camaraderie and secrecy, 
was an instrumentality well adapted to the work now in hand. 
Violence, even to murder, there was undoubtedly much of, 
but the great underlying force through which the movement 
acomplished its end lay in the realm of the mysterious, the 
suggestive, the supernatural, to the unsophisticated mind of 
the negro. The appeal to the white office-holder, whether 
carpet-bagger or "scalawag," was of a sterner sort, and one 
that all men could readily understand. One by one, in all the 
States but the four "black" States, county and section and 
State was siowly returned to the "Southern " supremacy by 

' Atlantic Monthly, vol. Ixxxvii., p. 473- 



4i6 A Political History of Slavery 

methods in which, when the "headless horseman " failed, the 
"shot-gun " played its part. The carpet-bagger found safety 
in his former Northern home— the negro in an engrossing ap- 
plication to industrial pursuits and a long farewell to the po- 
litical arena. The movement of hidden forces which produced 
this result, in spite of Federal authority emphasized by the 
presence of Federal troops in every Southern State, has been 
compared by William Garrott Brown' "to that secret move- 
ment by which, under the very noses of French garrisons, 
Stein and Scharnhorst organized the great German struggle 
for liberty." 

Congress did not look on quietly at this political obliteration 
of the negro, this practical undoing of the Fifteenth Amend- 
ment. Its first action was taken in the early months of 1870, 
when all the Southern States except Tennessee were still in 
the hands of the Republicans, and when the system of terror 
and intimidation practised by the South had as yet produced 
small effect in exclusion of negroes from the polls. A bill 
"to enforce the rights of citizens of the United States to vote 
in the several States of this Union who have hitherto been 
denied that right on account of race, color or previous con- 
dition of servitude " was introduced in the House by Mr. 
Bingham of Ohio, on the 2ist of February. Referred to the 
Judiciary Committee, it was reported back on the 9th of March 
with a substitute in the form of an amendment. The bill and 
substitute were recommitted and an amended bill was reported 
back on the i6th of May. There was no discussion : the Re- 
publican party was too strong and too united to be under the 
necessity of any argument. The bill was passed on the day 
of its report under a suspension of the rules, and came up in 
the Senate on the 17th. A Senate substitute was passed by 
that body on the 20th, was accepted in committee of confer- 
ence, and became a law on the 31st of May. It enacted pains 
and penalties for any officer of election in any State, territory, 
district, county, city, parish, township, school district, munici- 
pality or other territorial subdivision, who should refuse or 

1 Atlantic Monthly, vol. Ixxxvii., p. 634. 



The Failure of Reconstruction 417 

knowingly omit to give full effect to this enactment, it being 
made his duty to give equal opportunity to every properly 
qualified citizen to vote. It enacted the same punishments 
for any person who should obstruct or hinder any citizen in 
his attempt to vote, either by means of bribery, or threats of 
depriving such person of employment or occupation, or of 
ejecting him from rented house, lands or other property, or re- 
fusing to renew leases or contracts for labor, or by threats of 
violence to himself or family. It gave to the courts of the 
United States exclusive jurisdiction in all cases arising under 
the act, and also made it the duty of all district attorneys, 
marshals and commissioners pertaining to such courts to 
prosecute all offences committed under its provisions, and au- 
thorized the President to use the federal forces in aid of all 
judicial processes issued under the act. Finally it gave to the 
federal courts the decision in all cases where a defeated can- 
didate challenged the election of his opponent by reason of 
denial to any citizen of the right to vote on account of race, 
color or previous servitude.' 

It was shown in the brief debate in the Senate that the act 
went beyond the Fifteenth Amendment. Senator Hamilton 
of Maryland maintained' that the amendment "confers upon 
Congress no power of af^rmative legislation under it " ; that 
"it is entirely negative and prohibitive in its terms; it denies, 
it prohibits, the exercise of certain powers," first to the 
United States, then to the States, but not to the individuals 
in the States. But this act made it a misdemeanor with heavy 
penalties for any person to hinder in any way in any State or 
territory the voting or qualifying to vote by any citizen. But 
the constitutionalists were overwhelmed by the logic of events, 
and for twenty-four years the Force Laws remained on the 
statute-book. 

If Congress entertained the thought that its enactment 
would meet the situation in the South it was speedily disap- 
pointed. Legislation so drastic as to make a misdemeanor of 

' Congressional Globe, 2d Sess., 41st Cong., part 7, p. 661. 
Ubid., p. 353. 

VOL. II.— 27. 



41 S A Political History of Slavery 

"refusing to renew leases or contracts for labor" overshot the 
mark and could not be enforced. What The Nation said in 
1890, with reference to the Lodge Force Bill of that year, was 
just as true in 1870: "By far the smallest part of the suppres- 
sion of the negro vote occurs at the polls. The bulk of it 
takes place long before election, through the influence of the 
rich on the poor, of the creditor on the debtor, of the em- 
ployer on the laborer, of the landlord on the tenant. No 
power the law can create can interfere with the operation of 
these influences."' The act had been hurried through Con- 
gress with a view to the elections in the closing months of the 
year. But so far as they were concerned it was a dead letter. 
The carpet-bag governments went on plundering the Southern 
whites through the agencies of Legislatures, local taxing au- 
thorities and civil processes in the courts. The clause in the 
act which empowered the President to employ the military in 
the preservation of an unobstructed suffrage produced wide- 
spread irritation as an invasion of rights safeguarded by the 
Constitution, and accomplished no good purpose at all com- 
mensurate with the dangerous passions it excited. Even Mr. 
Blaine, who supported all the radical reconstruction legisla- 
tion, considers that the Republicans on the abstract issue were 
placed at a disadvantage, and recalling the complaint made 
by Republicans in 1857 over the intimidation of anti-slavery 
voters in Kansas by the presence of federal troops, he sug- 
gests the application readily made to the existing case in 1870. 
"It was not unnaturally or inaptly asked whether the presence 
of the military at the elections of a State of the Union was not 
even more offensive than their presence at the elections in a 
territory of the Union which was directly under the control 
of the national Government." "^ 

The continuance of carpet-bag domination, supported by 
the negro vote and the presence of federal troops in the 
neighborhood of the polls, kept alive the insidious and inex- 
plicable movement below the surface of Southern society, 

' The Nation, vol. li., p. 44. 

^ Twenty Years in Congress, vol. ii., p. 468. 



The Failure of Reconstruction 419 

which was slowly but surely to eliminate the negro from poli- 
tics. Renewed acts of violence irritated and exasperated the 
Republican majority in Congress to still further legislation. 

Mr. Churchill of New York introduced in the House January 
9, 1871, a bill amendatory of the act of May 31, 1870, intended 
"to enforce the rights of citizens of the United States to vote 
in the several States." Only four hours were given to its dis- 
cussion, when it was brought up by Mr. Bingham of Ohio on 
February 15th, and it passed the House that day, although 
vigorously opposed by Mr. Eldridge of Wisconsin, Mr. Cox 
of New York and Mr. Kerr of Indiana. It was introduced 
the same day in the Senate, referred the next day, reported 
back without amendment February 20th, and passed February 
24th after two days' discussion. Yet the minority were not 
allowed so much as to correct the faulty English of certain 
passages, and the bill became law February 28, 1871. This 
act made it the duty of the federal circuit courts to appoint 
two supervisors, drawn one from each party, in cities and towns 
of over twenty thousand inhabitants, on the petition of any 
two citizens. These supervisors were to attend at all registra- 
tions of voters, and at all elections for Representatives or Dele- 
gates in Congress; to make the registration lists and to mark 
.as challenged all whom they might think improperly registered ; 
"to personally scrutinize, count and canvass each and every 
ballot in their or his election district or voting precinct cast, 
whatever may be the endorsement on said ballot, or in what- 
ever box it may have been placed or be found." Jurisdiction 
over offences committed against the supervisors while engaged 
in the execution of this act, or against United States marshals 
while protecting the supervisors, was given exclusively to the 
federal courts, and any official who was prosecuted in a State 
court for any action taken under the act might have the case 
removed summarily to the federal courts. Senator Thurman 
attacked with much force this last provision, which gave to an 
arbitrary or corrupt official the opportunity, when prosecuted, 
to remove the proceedings into a friendly court, before a jury 
empanelled by one of his own colleagues. Senator Casserly, 



420 A Political History of Slavery 

with even greater argument, attacked the enactment which 
authorized a federal supervisor to scrutinize each and every 
ballot, in whatever box it may have been placed. According 
to the method of voting then in use in some of the States, 
although the State and federal elections were held at the same 
time and place, separate ballot-boxes were assigned. The 
obnoxious provision therefore placed the secrecy of the local 
ballot-boxes at the mercy of the federal inspectors. Mr. 
Eldridge also called attention to the wide area covered by the 
act, declaring that "the word town must be taken in its popu- 
lar sense, and will be construed in this bill as synonymous 
with township," making it apply to country districts as well 
as to cities. 

So little did this act seem to meet the evils of the situation 
\ti the South, that in less than one month from its enactment, 
and before it could go into operation, President Grant, in a 
special message to Congress of date March 23, 1871, said: 

A condition of affairs now exists in some of the States of the 
Union rendering life and property insecure and the carrying of the 
mails and the collecting of the revenue dangerous. That the power 
to correct these evils is beyond the control of the State authorities 
I do not doubt; that the power of the executive of the United 
States acting within the limits of existing laws is sufficient for pres- 
ent emergencies is not clear. Therefore I urgently recommend 
such legislation as in the judgment of Congress shall effectually 
secure life, liberty and property and the enforcement of law in all 
parts of the United States.' 

General Scott, the carpet-bag radical Republican Governor of 
South Carolina, had already called upon the President for pro- 
tection against domestic violence, and the day after the special 
message went to Congress the President issued his proclama- 
tion, reciting that "combinations of armed men unauthorized 
by law are now disturbing the peace and safety of the citizens 
of the State of South Carolina and committing acts of violence 
in said State of a character and to an extent which render the 

^Messages and Papers of the Presidents, vol. vii., p. 127. 



The Failure of Reconstruction 421 

power of the State and its officers unequal to the task of pro- 
tecting life and property and securing public order therein." 
The proclamation ordered the persons composing the unlawful 
combinations to disperse within twenty days.' 

The answer of Congress to the special message of March 
23d was the "Kuklux Act " of April 20, 1871. The answer 
from South Carolina to the proclamation of March 24th was 
that the combinations therein mentioned 

had no traitorous intention whatsoever, but were simply defensive 
in their nature; that the wholesale pardoning of criminals by the 
Governor and the vagrancy of the negroes had filled the country 
with desperadoes who made life, property and female honor inse- 
cure; and that as the militia was composed of the friends of these 
fiends, and the State government itself would not protect the white 
citizens, it was absolutely necessary for the white people to create 
some means of united action in self-defence and take the law into 
their own hands. '^ 

The first of the steps that led up to the so-called "Kuklux 
Act " of April 20, 1 87 1, was a request to the President from 
the Senate December 16, 1870, for information concerning 
organizations of disloyal persons in North Carolina. The 
'President transmitted the required reports January 13th and 
17th. Senator Morton, on January i8th, called for a select 
committee on Southern outrages, and the committee was ap- 
pointed, consisting of Senators Scott, Wilson, Chandler, Blair, 
Nye, Rice of Arkansas and Bayard. The committee was reap- 
pointed at the opening of the Forty-second Congress, March 
4th. The Committee reported on the loth, and on the i6th 
Senator Sherman introduced a resolution, which in its final 
form declared the civil authority to be set at defiance in North 
Carolina by organized bands of lawless and desperate men, 
armed, disciplined and disguised, and bound by oaths and 
secret obligations ; that the courts were rendered powerless to 
punish through organized perjury; and that there was good 

' Messages and Papers of the Presidents, vol. vii., p. 132. 
"^Reconstruction and the Constitution, John W. Burgess, p. 259. 



422 A Political History of Slavery 

reason to believe that similar conditions existed in many other 
parts of the South. The Judiciary Committee was therefore 
to report a bill "to enable the President and the courts of the 
United States to execute the laws, punish and prevent such 
organized violence, and secure to all citizens the rights guar- 
anteed them." After an exhaustive debate of three weeks 
the resolution was adopted on April 5th. Meanwhile, bills 
had been introduced in the House by General Butler on 
March 20th, and by Mr. Shellabarger on March 28th, to en- 
force the Fourteenth Amendment in the Southern States. 
Mr. Shellabarger's bill was from the select committee to which 
had been referred the President's message of five days before. 
After a full and acrimonious debate it passed the House on 
April 6th, and was made its own bill by the Senate, and became 
a law April 20, 1871. 

The act provided that any one who under color of any State 
law should cause to any person within the jurisdiction of the 
United States the deprivation of any rights secured by the 
Constitution should be held liable in the federal courts. That 
if two or more persons should conspire together to oppose the 
government of the United States or to impede the execution 
of its laws, or to take its property, or to intimidate any one 
from holding any federal office or discharging its duties, or 
to coerce in any way any witness or juror in a federal court 
or any voter for federal elections, or to prevent the consti- 
tuted authorities of any State from extending to all persons 
the equal protection of the laws, they should be held liable 
to fine and imprisonment in the circuit courts of the United 
States. That whenever such combinations should so obstruct 
the course of justice that the State authorities should be either 
unwilling or unable to protect the people in their constitu- 
tional rights, it should be the duty of the President to employ 
the military forces of the United States for the suppression of 
such combinations: such successful defiance of the State au- 
thority to constitute rebellion, to be met by the President in 
his judgment by the suspension of the privileges of the writ 
of habeas corpus. That any one having knowledge of any of 



The Failure of Reconstruction 423 

the aforesaid acts of wrong about to be committed, and being 
able to prevent it, should be held liable in damages to any one 
thereby injured/ 

This act practically would wipe out the autonomy of every 
State ruled over by carpet-bag governments, and destroy the 
independence of its judiciary, for it was impossible for any Re- 
publican Governor or Legislature in the South to prevent the 
intimidation of the negroes. Two weeks after it became law, 
the President on the 3d of May issued a proclamation in which 
he characterized the law as one of extraordinary importance, 
and called upon all good citizens and especially all public 
ofificers to be zealous in its enforcement, and to abstain from 
all violation of its provisions. Calling attention to the fact 
that while it was applicable equally to all portions of the 
United States, it was especially brought into being by con- 
ditions in certain portions of the land, he called upon the 
people of those parts to be especially zealous in suppressing 
all disorder and maintaining the equal rights of all citizens.' 

The President's straightforward words fell, not upon deaf 
ears, but upon a situation that must become worse before it 
could become better. The South stood solid for one thing 
only, — the carpet-bagger must go, and so must the negro from 
• the legislative halls and the multitudinous local offices. Mat- 
ters did not improve during the following summer. The 
President was again appealed to, this time from South Caro- 
lina, where he was notified that in nine counties combinations 
and conspiracies impeded the enforcement of the law. On the 
1 2th day of October he issued a proclamation ordering all who 
were disobeying the law of April 20th to disperse within five 
days. On the 17th day of the same month he issued a second 
proclamation suspending the privileges of the writ of habeas 
corpus in the nine disturbed counties. He followed this up 
by sending a strong military force into the proclaimed counties, 
and in his annual message of December 4, 1871, he announced 
to Congress that 168 persons were under arrest and would be 

' Congressional Globe, 1st Sess., 42d Cong., appendix, p. 335. 
"^ Messages and Papers, vol. vii., p. 134. 



424 A Political History of Slavery 

held for regular trial in the federal courts, and that several 
hundred more "whose criminality was ascertained to be of an 
inferior degree, were released for the present." ' 

In reply to a request made January 25, 1872, by the House 
of Representatives, that the President would inform the House 
what action had been taken under the act of February 28, 
1871, President Grant, on April 19, 1872, reported that the 
proclaimed districts of South Carolina were terrorized by 
powerful combinations, popularly known as"Kuklux Klans," 
whose objects were "by force and terror to prevent all political 
action not in accord with the views of the members; to deprive 
colored citizens of the right to bear arms, and of the right to 
a free ballot; to suppress schools in which colored children 
were taught, and to reduce the colored people to a condition 
closely akin to that of slavery " ; that these combinations were 
connected with similar ones in other counties and States and 
were no doubt part of a grand system of criminal associations 
pervading most of the Southern States. In the early part of 
1871 a joint committee of Congress had been appointed to 
investigate Southern outrages, and had visited the Southern 
States for that purpose. As a result of its report, made in 
the Senate, February 19, 1872, a clause was introduced into 
the bill passed June 10, 1872, making appropriations for sundry 
civil expenses for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1873. By 
this act it was provided that on demand of ten citizens of any 
county, parish or congressional district the federal circuit 
courts should appoint two supervisors; this provision to be 
amendatory to the act of February 28, 1871. Thus was the 
implication, as suggested by Mr. Eldridge, in the word "town" 
made explicit, and the enforcement legislation extended in so 
many words to the whole country. 

These four acts reaching, in their enactment, over a period 
of about two years, mark the determination of the Republican 
Congress to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend- 
ments. At the close of the period an act was passed which 
helped to make it more difficult to maintain the negro su- 

^Messages and Papers, vol. vii., p. 151. 



The Failure of Reconstruction 425 

premacy in the South. By the Amnesty Act of May 22, 1872, 
the disfranchised classes of whites were reduced to a small 
number of persons, and the great mass of the Southern white 
men were restored to their rights of suffrage. More and 
more they forced their way into the Legislatures and the offices 
through their superiority of leadership, and in spite of the 
Force Laws suppressed the negro, until State after State had 
passed forever from his control. In the "black States" he 
still held control. In 1872 Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, 
Tennessee, Georgia and Texas elected Greeley electors on 
the national ticket. In 1874, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas 
elected Democratic Legislatures and Governors. In the same 
year South Carolina took one step toward recovery by the 
election of Daniel H. Chamberlain as Governor. He was, it 
is true, a Republican from the North, had been Attorney- 
General of the State in a carpet-bag administration, and had 
been smiled at by his supporters when he made promises of 
reform. But a Southern writer testifies to the relentless in- 
tegrity with which he vetoed the corrupt measures of his negro 
Legislature, and to the immediate and vital reforms in the ad- 
ministration of justice. "He did not truckle to the whites, 
as has been charged. He associated with them professedly 
as a Republican, but avoided insulting their prejudices. He 
always gave the blacks strict justice. In his appointments he 
preferred Republicans when fit ones could be found; but 
where none were fit he would select Democrats." ' From be- 
ing an object of suspicion. Governor Chamberlain came to be 
a favorite in the most aristocratic society of the State. His 
recent contribution to the history of reconstruction is the 
most searching condemnation of the carpet-bag rule ever 
written.* 

Henry C. Warmoth of Illinois had been for four years, 
from 1868 to 1872, the Republican Governor of Louisiana, and 
during his administration the State was financially wrecked. 
By the end of that period he had quarrelled with the federal 
officials in the State, and through their influence William Pitt 

' Atlantic Monthly, vol. xxxix, p. i8i. '^ H'id-, Ixxxvii., p. 473. 



426 A Political History of Slavery 

Kellogg, also from Illinois, was put forward as the Republican 
candidate for Governor. Warmoth threw in his lot with the 
Democrats, and they together nominated John McEnery, a 
Southern Democrat. The Republican returning board broke 
up into two factions, headed by Governor Warmoth and John 
Lynch, each of whom filled vacancies caused by the other's 
defection. The Warmoth board returned McEnery, the 
Greeley electors and a Democratic Legislature; the Lynch 
board returned Kellogg, Grant electors and a Republican 
Legislature, Congress, a few months later, threw out both re- 
turns for electors, and the State lost her presidential vote. 
The federal court in Louisiana enjoined the Warmoth board, 
and the federal marshal, under instructions from Washing- 
ton, put the Kellogg government in possession of the capitol. 
In September of 1874, the McEnery forces, under the lead of 
D. B. Penn, Lieutenant-Governor on the recent Democratic 
ticket, rose in arms. Governor Kellogg called on the President 
for troops. On the 15th, President Grant issued his procla- 
mation calling on all disorderly persons in Louisiana to disperse 
within five days. This ended all resistance to the Kellogg 
government.' 

The Legislature of Mississippi, by concurrent resolution, 
December 18, 1874, in consequence of the lawless condition 
of things in Warren County in that State by which the legally 
elected officers were prevented from fulfilling their duties, 
called upon the President for military aid. Three days later 
President Grant by proclamation ordered all disorderly per- 
sons in that section to disperse within five days. As the No- 
vember elections in the following year approached the disorders 
increased in that State, and on the 8th of September Governor 
Ames appealed to the President for troops. The request was 
refused, and the Governor was advised to assemble his Legis- 
lature and with them seek to restore order. President Grant 
said most significantly, as heralding the impending downfall of 
the whole structure, built up so painfully during the past eight 

^Messages and Papers, vol. vii., pp. 212, 223, 276, 297, 305 ; Reconstruction 
and the Constitution, p. 269. 



The Failure of Reconstruction 427 

years: "The whole public are tired out with these annual au- 
tumnal outbreaks in the South, and the great majority are 
ready now to condemn any interference on the part of the 
Government; I heartily wish that peace and good order may 
be restored without issuing the proclamation. But if it is 
issued, I shall instruct the commander of the forces to have no 
child's play." ' 

At the ensuing election the Southern whites came into com- 
plete control. The Senate consisted of 26 Conservatives and 
II Republicans; the House of 97 Conservatives and 19 Re- 
publicans; with only five negroes in the Senate and sixteen 
in the House. Among the first proceedings of the Legislature 
were impeachment measures against Governor Ames and the 
Lieutenant-Governor and the Superintendent of Education. 
The last, a negro, was allowed to resign, the Lieutenant- 
Governor, also black, was convicted and disqualified for office, 
and Governor Ames, on March 28, 1876, stated to the Legis- 
lature that while he could not withdraw in the face of impeach- 
ment, he would do so if the impeachment were abandoned. 
The impeachment was immediately dismissed by a vote of 78 
to 10, in the House, and 24 to 7 in the Senate, and the Gov- 
ernor thereupon resigned. Colonel J. M. Stone, the president 
pro tern, of the Senate, was at once installed as Governor, and 
the alien rule in Mississippi ended. At the election in 1876 
the State's vote was cast for Tilden electors, and the six mem- 
bers chosen for Congress all were Democrats.'' 

When the fall elections were due in 1876 there were but 
three Southern States remaining under the control of the black 
voters and the Republican leaders — Florida, South Carolina 
and Louisiana. The State of Florida was the first of these to 
revert to Southern white control. The elections of November, 
1876, passed off with almost no disorder. The ex officio re- 
turning board consisted of the Secretary of State and the 
Comptroller, both Republicans, and the Attorney-General, a 
Democrat. The majority certified to the election of the 

' American Politics, Alexander Johnston, p. 229. 
'^ Annual Cyclopaedia, 1876, pp. 560-565. 



::.. -:5:or\- ot :^.2.ver. 



1 



50 

-31 



Thf: T'ailiir^: of l<.':f,orjstruction 4^'> 

Secretary of State were «virnitted to the House of Rcj^revmta- 
tives, A Democratic Houv:, consequently, wa>. orj/anized 
elsewhere. The Republican Hou»c, together v/ith the Senate, 
which was confessedly Republican, canvasw'rd the v^/te, and 
announced the election of Chamberlain, who wan *worn into 
office the 7th of December. Five rlay?, later the Democratic 
House, with such Senators as would attend, canva»t*€d the 
vote— throuj^h certificate and duplicate returns — ^and declared 
General Hampton elected. He aLs/j was sworn in as Governor. 

At the beginning of /^.yy both State government* and the two 
Houses of R.epre3er*tative« were in ezistence. Governor Hampton, 
however, appeared t/-^ be re^x»gnized by the civil and judi/,ial offi/;«ri 
of the State aa the lawful Governor. The condition of affairi in 
South Carolina was one of the fir»t rnatt/rrs that engaged the per«or*al 
attention of President Hayes. lioth Chamberlain and H'4X(\\A//u 
were invited to Washington by the President for j/er^/^mal (//rdvc- 
ences. The President finally determined t/> withdraw the L'nited 
States troops from the State House 2^ C^^lurabia. The troops were 
arxordingly withdrawn on the loth of April, and on the same day 
Governor Chamberlain issued a proclamation declaring that he 
should no longer assert his rights tr> the gubernatorial ofifice. The 
State govemrnent was peaceably turned over to Governor Hampton 
and the other State offioers elected on the ticket with him.* 

In Louisiana, early in 1876, an attemr/t liad beem made by 
the Southern men to impeach Governor Kellogg, btit crmfiict 
between a Democratic House and a Republican Senate made 
it impossible to proceed. The Republican convention in the 
summer nominated S. B. Packard for Governor; Francis T. 
NichoILs was nominated by the Democrats. Everything cen- 
tred in the State elections, which entirely overshadov/ed that 
for President. Every effort was made by the Democrats to 
win the State through the negro vote. The Kellogg admini^ 
tration had become so odious that ovlored speakers took a 
prominent place on the Democratic programme. Jojscph A. 
Craig, a negro, i.saed an address to colored citizens, urging 

' Annual Cy.bp'xdvi. .''."' ■ '- 'I'f-'^'- 



430 A Political History of Slavery 

them in the interests of good government and for their own 
advantage to vote the Democratic ticket. At the request of 
President Grant, fifteen or more of the most distinguished 
Republicans in the country, including Senator Sherman and 
James A. Garfield, visited New Orleans to witness the can- 
vass of the vote. A similar request made by the chairman of the 
national Democratic committee induced as many more leading 
Democrats to do likewise. Among the latter were Lyman 
Trumbull, Samuel J. Randall, George W. Julian and Henry 
Watterson. An invitation to the Republican visitors to confer 
with these Democrats unfortunately was refused, for the Re- 
publican returning board could not be above suspicion, and a 
conference might have created the strongest guarantee for im- 
partiality. The board returned Republican presidential electors 
and State ofificials, and Republican majorities on the congres- 
sional delegation and in both Houses of the Legislature. On 
the 5th of December, John McEnery, as "Governor of Louisi- 
ana," in the presence of the Attorney-General and a district 
judge, certified, from duplicate returns, the Democratic elec- 
tors, and the Democratic committee on returns added to this 
the certification of the election of Nicholls. When the time 
came for the meeting of the Legislature the same method was 
followed by the party still in power as had been adopted in 
South Carolina. Governor Kellogg occupied the State House 
with police and militia, and no one was admitted without a 
certificate of election from the returning board. The Demo- 
crats organized a Democratic Legislature in another place. 
Each body protested against the existence of the other, de- 
clared the vote in favor of its own candidate for Governor, and 
installed him early in January, 1877. The Democrats set up 
new courts, including a Supreme Court, and the courts and 
police-stations in New Orleans were surrendered to them. 
General Augur, for the federal Government, merely kept the 
peace.' 

So matters stood when the administration of Mr. Hayes 
began. One of his first acts was to send to New Orleans an 

' Amiual Cyclopedia, 1876, pp. 481-493. 



The Failure of Reconstruction 431 

unofficial commission of prominent men to prepare the way 
for his withdrawal of military aid from the State. These men 
were General Joseph R. Hawley, Judge Charles B. Lawrence, 
General John M. Harlan, ex-Governor John C. Brown and 
Wayne McVeagh. Their instructions were to find, if possible, 
one administration which could be recognized, or, in case that 
should be impossible, one Legislature. After conferences with 
men of all opinions and parties, the migration of a few mem- 
bers from the Packard to the Nicholls Legislature gave the 
latter, on April 20th, what neither body had hitherto enjoyed, 
— a quorum, and the same day the President, at the sugges- 
tion of his commission, ordered General Sherman to withdraw 
the troops from the vicinity of the State House on the 24th. 
The next day the Packard Legislature dispersed, and the Demo- 
cratic Houses were reinforced by the first appearance of over 
fifty Republican members. The same day the commissioners 
reported to the President the facts and events that had influ- 
enced their advice of the day before. On the 24th the troops 
were withdrawn to their barracks, and the Nicholls govern- 
ment took full possession of the State.' 

Thus, after ten years of strenuous effort and of still more 
strenuous resistance, the now historic plan of reconstruction 
was abandoned, because the best thought of the North at 
last realized that it is impossible to solve the social and 
moral problems of a people from without; that each com- 
munity must work out its own salvation. It was to be no 
longer a question of what the best friends of mankind want or 
even of what the Constitution with its amendments had dic- 
tated. The question was to be, What does our knowledge of 
the laws of mental and social development permit us to expect 
and demand? Negro citizenship in all that the expression 
means could not be forced upon an unconvinced and opposing 
South— not at any rate while the State exists within the na- 
tion. It is pathetic to read, since 1890, the pledge given by 
Governor Nicholls of Louisiana to a colored Conservative club 
of New Orleans, where he says: "Any law attempted to be 

' Annual Cyclopedia, 1877, pp. 455-465- 



432 A Political History of Slavery 

passed directed against a class or race of the community would 
meet my most determined opposition. No such attempt, 
however, will be made; for, independently of the constitu- 
tional barriers which would stand in the way, the Democratic 
and conservative sentiment of the whole State is united against 
such action." ' Equally pathetic, in the light of recent legis- 
lation, are the words of Governor Hampton, spoken in June, 
1877, to an audience at Auburn, New York. 

I say to you, men of New York, as I say at home, I owe my 
election to the colored men of South Carolina. Thousands of them ' 
voted for me, knowing that I had been a good friend of their race, 
knowing that I was the first man after the war to recommend that 
they should be given the right of suffrage, and I have never yet 
changed my opinion on this subject. Knowing this, they sustained 
me in large numbers, and I am happy to say that nearly all the 
fears of the more ignorant are passing away, and they are satisfied 
that they will be dealt with in all respects as citizens of South 
Carolina.^ 

That these pledges given in the two storm centres of resist- 
ance have not been realized, a series of "understanding" and 
"grandfather" clauses in recent Southern legislation testify; 
that they could have been enforced by a continuance of the re- 
construction policy even to the present day, the overwhelming 
opinion of the North to-day denies. Not otherwise could the 
North look on in apparent unconcern while the Fifteenth 
Amendment steadily is being made a dead letter wherever the 
Stars and Bars once floated. Among the first men to come to 
this opinion were Republican leaders as radically unlike as 
President Grant and President Hayes. The opinion of the 
former is best condensed in his letter to Governor Ames, already 
cited on page 427. The opinion of President Hayes received 
most practical emphasis when in April, 1877, he withdrew all 
military aid from the de facto governments of South Carolina 

' Annual Cydopcedia, 1876, p. 4S6. 
^Harper's Weekly, July 7, i377, p. 519. 



The Failure of Reconstruction 433 

and Louisiana. The day the Packard Legislature disbanded, 
George William Curtis wrote: 

If the negro is abandoned in South Carolina by the policy of 
President Hayes, he has been abandoned in all the other Southern 
States by President Grant. Grant did not think it necessary to in- 
terfere in Georgia, in Alabama, in Mississippi. Of course if wrong 
was done in those States, it is no argument for the same wrong 
elsewhere. But if wrong was done there it was reason for denuncia- 
tions that have not been heard, and for appeals that should not have 
been spared. . . . The only distinct reason for the permanent 
maintenance of State governments by the national arm that we have 
seen is that of Comptroller-General Dunn of South Carolina, as 
stated by him to a correspondent of The Tribune. He acknow- 
ledged the evils of negro government, and wanted to see the color 
line broken down, but he thought the way to break it down is for 
the administration to uphold the Southern Republicans until their 
opponents divide. This is at least an intelligible policy. But it is 
not new. It has been tried for twelve years. And what is the re- 
sult ? Has there been any division of opponents? Has not the color 
line been more and more strongly drawn, until the Republican vote 
has almost come to be estimated by the census of the colored citizens? 
Has not State after State been withdrawn from Republican control? 
If it be said that this is because troops have not been freely used, is 
it not true that they have not been used because public opinion 
condemned such use, and that the Republican party was rapidly 
declining in popular confidence because of its supposed purpose of 
constant military interference? ' 

Two weeks later he wrote : 

The Southern policy of President Hayes is called an experiment. 
The Southern policy of President Grant was confessed by himself 
to be a failure. At the very end of his administration, on the ist 
of March, 1877, his secretary telegraphed to Governor Packard: 
" The President directs me to say that he feels it his duty to state 
frankly that he does not believe public opinion will longer support 
the maintenance of the State government in Louisiana by the use 

^Harper's Weekly, April 21, 1877, p. 302. 
VOL. 11—28. 



434 A Political History of Slavery 

of the military, and he must concur in this manifest feeling." The 
evidence of this public opinion was ample, and it was not the result 
of mere fatigue with the long Southern trouble to which Governor 
Chamberlain alluded in his final letter. It was due to the percep- 
tion that, however necessary at the close of the war and for some 
time after, this policy was now practically paralyzing the conditions 
of popular government. It tended to destroy the instinct and the 
habit of local self-government, which is the root of a popular sys- 
tem. It fostered the hate and the hostility which it assumed ; which 
if justly assumed it could not possibly remedy or remove.' 

Again, one week later, he wrote : 

The action of the administration has shown the intelligent people 
of the Southern States what they have not hitherto believed: that 
the Republican sentiment of the North as such is not a hostile and 
vindictive feeling. The truth is that the real Republican sentiment 
was very much more considerate, generous and friendly than the 
spirit of many of the recognized Republican leaders. By enabling 
this to be seen President Hayes has done a great service to the 
North and the South. He has disclosed the healing truth that the 
deep solid sentiment of this part of the country approves and sup- 
ports a policy which contemplates national harmony by justice and 
confidence.^ 

Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who from Boston 
Common to Kansas had fought the battle of the black man 
before the Civil War began, and who led the first regiment of 
former slaves ever mustered into service, said a few weeks after 
the President recalled the troops : 

Let the immediate consequences be good or bad — I firmly believe 
that they will be good, but no matter for that — there was nothing 
else to be done. The proof of this lies in the fact that every one 
who opposes his action has to begin by assuming that South Carolina 
and Louisiana are still provinces. . . . For him, in time of 
peace, to keep troops in any State House in order to determine a 
disputed claim to the governorship, is a stretch of power so great 

' Harper's Weekly, May 5, 1877, p. 342. 
'■Ibid., May 12, 1877, p. 362. 



The Failure of Reconstruction 435 

that no State in the Union ought to tolerate it — so great that it ought 
to be resisted by every peaceful means.' 

Twenty-five years after these words were uttered, the ablest 
and most far-sighted man the negro race has produced, and 
one of the greatest men of his age, spoke to the assembled 
teachers of California in this wise : 

A little more than forty years ago there was but one relation in 
the South between the races — that of owner and slave, master and 
servant. During the last thirty-five years all of us in the South, 
black and white, have been trying as best we could to adjust our- 
selves to the new conditions, and when we consider the tremendous 
industrial and political revolution which took place within a few 
months, I think that all of us have great cause to rejoice that the 
outlook is no worse than it is. When we consider the very great 
change, I see no reason for discouragement, but, on the other hand, 
many reasons for hope and encouragement. What the situation 
requires now most of all is patience, forbearance and hard, unselfish 
work and money used in wise directions, 

I cannot subscribe to the doctrine, popular with some, that the 
negro has lost ground during the last dozen years. It is true that 
we do not have so many men in Congress as formerly, but there are 
more negroes owning farms and decent homes, and who are tax- 
payers, than has ever been true in the history of the race. There 
may not be so many occupying seats in Legislatures, but there are 
fifty per cent, more who are owning and operating grocery stores 
and have bank accounts than was true a dozen years ago. We may 
not make as many stump speeches or attend so many political con- 
ventions as formerly, but there are more agricultural fairs, more 
business, industrial, educational and religious conventions being 
held than was ever true in the history of the race. While in many 
cases it is not proclaimed from the housetops, there was never a 
time in the history of the race when there were so many Southern 
white men devoting themselves quietly, but earnestly, to assisting 
in the education and moral uplifting of our people. 

While I cannot and will not for a minute shut my eyes to the 
difificuities that surround us, difficulties that are far-reaching and 

' New York Tribune ; quoted in Harper s Weekly, May 19, 1877, p. 382. 



43^ A Political History of Slavery 

hard to overcome, I cannot fail to see the encouraging features in 
the development of our race. In my opinion the problem growing 
out of our presence in this country is the most serious and perplex- 
ing and far-reaching one that is before the country for solution. I 
believe, however, that we have found the way for its safe, gradual 
and permanent solution. What we want most of all is education 
for all the people, education that will keep in mind the past history, 
the environment and the present needs of those sought to be 
enlightened.' 

' Booker T. Washington at Los Angeles, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 3, 1903. 




INDEX 



Abolitionists condemned by Methodist 
General Conference in 1836, i., 39; 
condemned by certain Presbyterian 
ministers, 39 ; violent language used 
by, 40 ; denounced by Presbytery of 
South Alabama, 73 

Adams, Charles Francis, Minister to 
England, ii., 9 

Adams, John Quincy, anti-slavery posi- 
tion in Congress, i., 46 ; as counsel _ 
in the Amistad case, 59 ; presents pe-' 
tition for peaceful dissolution of the 
Union, 65 

Alabama prepares for secession, i., 300 ; 
secedes, 328 ; Senator Fitzpatrick op- 
poses secession, 328 ; elects Demo- 
cratic Legislature and Governor in 
1874, ii., 425 

Alabama, the Confederate cruiser, ii., 
140 ; C. F. Adams criticises English 
neglect concerning, 140; destroyed by 
the Kcarsarge, 182 

Alaska ceded to United States, ii., 
331 

Albany, public meeting censures treat- 
ment of Vallandigham, ii., 133 

Amendment, Thirteenth, the original, 
in behalf of slavery, ii., 8; intro- 
duced in Congress, 153 ; debate on, 
153-160; supported by Southern men, 
158 

Amendment, Fourteenth, first form of, 
introduced by Conkling, ii., 273; its 
final form, 275 ; ratified by Tennessee, 
278 ; Governor Brownlow's opinion 
of, 285 ; rejected by ten Southern 
States, 300 ; becomes law, 32S 

Amendment, Fifteenth, ii., 374; ratifi- 
cation announced, 406 



American or Know-Nothing Party, see 
Knoiu-Nothing 

Amistad, case of the slaver, i., 53 ; de- 
cision of Federal Court, 59 ; Senate 
resolution on, 60 

Ammen, David, publisher of anti-slavery 
writings, i., lO 

Amnesty Act of 1872, ii., 425 

Amnesty, proclaimed by President John- 
son, ii., 371 

Anderson, Major, takes possession of 
Fort Sumter, i., 316 

Andersonville prison, its terrible man- 
agement, ii., 151 

Andrew, Governor, influence in Chicago 
Convention, i., 292 

Antelope becomes slaver General Rami- 
rez, i., 29 

Anti-slavery agitation, through press 
and religious organizations, i., i 

Anti-Slavery Society, influence of, i., 35 ; 
disbands, ii., 407 

Appleton, Nathan, on the impending 
civil war, i., 294 

Arkansas, first attempts at reconstruc- 
tion, ii., 163; excluded from electoral 
college, 215 ; recognized by President 
Johnson, 238 ; outrages on negroes, 
244 ; elects Democratic Legislature 
and Governor in 1S74, 425 

Army, three-year veterans re-enlist, ii., 

'49 . . , . 

Arraganta, privateer and slaver, 1., 29 
Ashley, James M., supports Thirteenth 

Amendment, ii., 156 
Ashmun, George, presides over Chicago 

Convention of i860, i., 290 
Atchison, David R., endeavors to bring 

in Nebraska with slavery, i., 169 
Augur, General, neutral position at 

New Orleans, ii., 430 



437 



438 



Index 



B 



Baker, Senator Edward D., demands 
Southern grievances, i., 342; speech 
favoring increase of army, ii., 37; 
speech after Bull Run, 40 
Baltimore, mob attacks troops, ii., 21; 
authorities aid Confederacy, 23; occu- 
pied by Gen. Butler, 25 
Bank, National, Law of 1862, ii., 79 
Bankers, patriotic aid to Secretary 

Chase, ii., 70 
Bankruptcy law, passed by Thirty- 
Ninth Congress, ii., 316 
Banks, Nathaniel P., nominated for 
Presidency by Northern Know- Noth- 
ings, i., 230 
Barnburner and Hunker controversy, i., 

86 
Barrow of Louisiana, on Creole case, i., 

62 
Bates,Edward, suggested forpresidency, 

i., 288; Attorney-General, ii., 7 
Bayard, Thomas F., attacks habeas 
co7-pus sui^ension, ii., 119; and mili- 
tary measures, 120; on committee on 
Southern outrages, 421 
Beecher, Henry Ward, counsels moder- 
ation for victors, ii., 227; on ratifica- 
tion of Fifteenth Amendment, 407 
Belmont, August, welcomes Convention 

to Tammany Hall, ii., 354 
Benton, Senator Thomas H., appeals 
to peopleof Missouri against Calhoun, 
i., 108 
Berrien, John M., on Mexican War, 1., 

89 
Bingham, John A., offers anti-slavery 
resolution, i., 96; on admission of 
West Virginia, ii., 125; criticises bill 
for military governments, 307; sup- 
ports Senate amendment, 312; intro- 
duces Force Bill, 416; brings up a 
second bill, 419 
Birkbeck, Morris, opposed to slavery m 

Illinois, i., 26 
Birney, James G., presides at the 
Southern and Western Liberty Con- 
vention of 1845, i., 74 
Black, Jeremiah, appointed Secretary 

of State, i., 319 
Black Laws of Ohio of 1804 and 1807, 

i-. 14 
Blackwood's Magazine, on industrial 

conditions in West Indies in 1849, i., 

141 
Blaine, James G., seeks to amend bill 



for military governments, ii., 309; 
opinion on force legislation, 418 
Blair, Francis P., on disunion sentiment 
in South in 1849, i., 121; accuses 
Secretary Chase, ii., 184; self-ap- 
pointed envoy to Confederacy, 
207 ; presents his arguments, 209 ; 
leads to appointment of Confeder- 
ate commissioners, 210 ; hopes to 
overthrow reconstruction, 353 ; ar- 
raigns military government, 354 ; on 
committee on Southern outrages, 421 
Blair, Montgomery, Postmaster-Gen- 
eral, ii., 7 ; resigns from Cabinet, 193 
Blockade of Southern ports proclaimed, 
ii., 28 ; foreign attitude toward, 53 ; 
Jefferson Davis predicts results of, 
54 ; Lincoln gives reasons for enforce- 
ment, 54 
Border ruffians destroy Lawrence, Kan., 

i., 232 
Boutwell, George S., supports Thir- 
teenth Amendment, ii., 157; supports 
bill for military governments, 309 ; 
opposes the Senate substitute, 312 ; 
upholds Fifteenth Amendment, 375 
Boynton, General, on reconstruction, 

ii., 240 
Brandegee, Augustus, supports bill for 

military governments, ii., 306 
Breckinridge, John C, nominated by 
Democrats, i., 283 ; speech after 
Bull Run, ii., 39 
Breckinridge, Dr. Robert J., on slavery, 
i., 5 ; opposes slavery in Kentucky, 
III 
Bright, John, a friend to America, i., 

218 
Brinkerhoff, Jacob R., author of the 

Wilmot Proviso, i., 83 
Broderick, David C, killed in duel by 

Terry, i., 254 
Brodhead, James O., letter from Frank 

P. Blair, ii., 353 
Brough, John, his character, ii., 135 ; 
nominated for Governor of Ohio, 
136 ; his election, 137 ; on resigna- 
tion of Chase, 183 
Brown, Albert G., favors advancement 

of negro, ii., 321 
Brown, John, raid at Harper's Ferry, 

i., 265 
Brown, Governor Joseph E., of Georgia, 
on the conscription, ii., 145 ; opposes 
reunion, 197 ; supports Grant's can- 
didacy, 344 ; and the Fourteenth 
Amendment, 345 



Index 



439 



Brown, William Garrott, on the Ku 
Klux movement, ii., 416 

Browning, Orville H., enters Johnson's 
Cabinet, ii., 289; views on recon- 
struction, 290 

Buchanan, James, Ambassador to Lon- 
don, i., 214 ; opinion on privateering, 
217 ; characterized hy London Times, 
219 ; ambitious to settle slavery ques- 
tion, 222 ; his first message, 240; his 
relation to the Kansas outrages, 243; 
his attitude as to squatter sovereign- 
ty, 244 ; his inaugural, 244 ; wan- 
ing influence after Kansas-Nebraska 
Compromise, 260 ; abandoned by free 
North, 265 ; " The Old Public Func- 
tionary," 26S ; loses confidence of 
North, 304 ; his recommendation to 
Congress concerning slavery, 306 ; 
impeachment demanded by the Press, 
317 ; his timid policy encourages the 
South, 319 ; contrasted with Jackson, 
ii., 2 

Buell, General, plans campaign in Ten- 
nessee, ii., 67 

Bulletin, New Orleans, denounces 
frauds in Kansas, i., 190 

Bull Run, battle of, ii., 41 ; effect on 
condition of slaves, 43 

Burlingame treaty with China, ii., 51 

Burnett, Henry C, of Kentucky, en- 
courages rebellion, ii., 38 

Burnside, General, repulsed at Freder- 
icksburg, ii., 100; succeeded by 
Hooker, 100 ; his Order No. 38, 129 ; 
arrests Vallandigham, 130 

Butler, Benjamin F., believes in spoils 
system, ii., 389 

Butler, M. C., of South Carolina, de- 
nounces Congressional interference 
with slavery, i., 119 

C 

Cabinet appointed by President Tay- 
lor, i., 106; by Pierce, 164; Lincoln's 
appointments, ii., 7; Johnson retains 
Lincoln's, 238; Grant's appointments, 
384 

Calhoun, John C, on the war with 
Mexico, i., I ; introduces pro-slavery 
resolutions in 1837, 47 ; on the case 
of the slaver Enterprise, 60 ; attitude 
toward annexation of Texas, 77 ; on 
the Oregon Question, 81 ; on the 
Wilmot Proviso, 84 ; on Constitution 
in Territories, 106 ; his friends dis- 
pointed by results of Mexican War, 



107 ; draws up manifesto for South- 
ern Congressmen, 108 ; South stands 
on his argument of 1833, 347 

California, anti-slavery State, Constitu- 
tion adopted, i., 112 ; Democrats de- 
nounce Fifteenth Amendment, ii. , 399 

Cameron, Simon, Secretary of War, ii., 
7 ; declares for arming of slaves, 60 

Campaign, political, of 1848, i., 103; 
of 1852, 153; of 1856, 214; of i860, 
2S0 ; its features, 296; of 1864, ii., 
186; of 1868, 342 

Campbell, Judge J. A., invites confer- 
ence with North, ii., 207 ; commis- 
sioner to Hampton Roads, 210 

Carlile, John S., opposes Congressional 
plan for reconstruction, ii., 167 

Carpet-bag rule, causes of, ii., 412 ; its 
unscrupulousness, 414 

Cass, General, resigns from Cabinet, i., 

319 

Casserly, Senator Eugene, opposes Force 
Bill, ii., 419 

Caucus of Southern members of Con- 
gress prepares address, i., 108 

Census, Seventh, shows great industrial 
progress, i., 132 

Chamberlain, Daniel H., condemns 
carpet-bag policy, ii., 415 ; elected 
Governor of South Carolina, 425 ; 
loses State to Wade Hampton, 428 

Chandler, Senator Zachariah, on com- 
mittee on Southern outrages, ii., 421 

Channing, William EUery, deprecates 
sectional animosities, i., 28 ; his 
influential views, 35 

Charleston, failure to reinforce the forts 
a fatal blunder, i., 318 ; Mercury, 
sustains Douglas's compromise, 277 

Charlotte, empress of Mexico, her sad 
fate, ii., 331 

Chase, Salmon P., prepares address of 
the Southern and Western Liberty 
Convention of 1S45, i., 74; presides 
over Free-Soil Convention, 98 ; favors 
co-operation of Free-Soil and Dem- 
ocratic parties, 102 ; chosen United 
States Senator by political coalition, 
103 ; opinion on the compromise, 129 ; 
offers olive branch to Southern Demo- 
crats, 139 ; introduces amendment to 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 172; nomin- 
ated for Governor of Ohio, 195 ; con- 
demns surrender of fugitive slaves, 
211; Presidential candidate in Chicago 
Convention, 289 ; secretary of the 
Treasury, ii., 7 ; in the Peace Con- 



440 



Index 



Chase — Contin ued, 

gress, 8 ; great financial success, 45 ; 
his authority from Congress, 69 ; his 
loans from bankers, 69 ; unwilling to 
use credit of local banks, 71 ; ap- 
proves Legal-Tender Act, 78 ; more 
popular than Lincoln, I73 ; a possible 
Presidential candidate, 173 ; his es- 
teem for Lincoln, 174; resigns from 
the Treasury, 182 ; defends his con- 
duct, 184 ; his distrust of Republican 
tendencies, 185 ; opposed to certain 
Republican tendencies, 343 ; a possi- 
ble Democratic candidate, 352 ; his 
defeat in the convention, 359, mistake 
of his candidacy, 360 ; his relief of 
mind, 361 

Chicago Tribune early criticises Grant's 
administration, ii., 392 

China, the Burlingame treaty with, ii., 

373 

Choate, Rufus, deprecates Northern 
aggressiveness, i., 238 

Church, Sanford E., a possible Presi- 
dential candidate, ii., 352 

Churches in United States, opposition 
to slavery, i., 5 

Churchill, John C, introduced Force 
Bill, ii., 419 

Cincinnati Commercial, opposes confis- 
cation of slaves, ii., 63 

Cincinnati, efforts there to remove free 
people of color, i., 15 ; mass-meeting 
favorable to concession to South, 338 

Cincinnati Gazette, arguments against 
slavery in 1824, i., 27 ; approves of 
confiscation of slaves, 59; deprecates 
too much leniency, ii., 228 

Civil Rights Bill, vetoed by President, 
ii., 269; passed over veto, 271 ; at- 
tacked by Reverdy Johnson, 271 ; 
constitutionality of, 333 

Civil Service Reform, beginning of, 
ii.. 378 

Clapp, Theodore, idyllic picture of 
slavery, i., 38 

Clay, Clement C, threatens secession, 
i., 207 ; denounces Northern com- 
pulsion, 344 

Clay, Henry, on value of slave labor, 
i., 3 ; defeated by anti-slavery votes in 
1844, 76 ; resolution on annexation of 
Texas, 89 ; as a Presidential candi- 
date in 1848, 90 ; Senate speech on 
slavery in 1849, 117; his Omnibus 
Bill, 124; compromise speech, 126 

Clay, James B., deserts Whigs, i., 239 



Clayton, John M., author of Presiden- 
tial policy in 1849, i-. "4 

Clingman, Senator, denounces Presi- 
dent's message, i., 307 

Cobb, Howell, resigns from Cabinet, i., 

319 
Coe, George E., opinion on financial 
policy, ii., 71 

Colebrooke, Sir James, Governor of 
Upper Canada, his attitude to slavery, 
i., 16 

Coles, Edward, Governor of Illinois, 
opposed to slavery, i., 26; suit brought 
against him as emancipator, 27 

Colfax, Schuyler, chosen Speaker of 
Thirty-ninth Congress, ii., 249; on 
reconstruction, 350 

Collamer, Jacob, of Vermont, discusses 
reconstruction, ii., 216 

Colonization, as an emancipation policy, 
i., 18 ; resolutions of Legislatures of 
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, 
Connecticut, 19 ; opposed by Charles 
Osborne, 19 ; opposed by extreme 
abolitionists, 19 

Colonization Society, on value of slave 
labor, i., 3 

Columbia, the slaver, seizure of, by 
United States, i., 29 

Confederacy, Commissioners of, not 
received by Seward, ii., 10 ; negotiate 
through Justice Campbell, 10 

Confederacy, Southern, formed at 
Montgomery, i., 328 ; places embargo 
on cotton, ii., 52; appoints peace com- 
missioners, 210 ; exhausted resources, 
215 

Confiscation of slaves, proclaimed by 
Fremont, ii., 58 ; approved by North- 
ern sentiment, 59; endorsed by Cin- 
cinnati Gazette, 59; deprecated by 
National Intelligencer, 62; approved 
by Evening Post, 62; and by yournal 
of Commerce, 62; opposed by Cincin- 
nati Commercial, 63; Senator Trum- 
bull introduces bill for, 63; Gurley 
introduces similar bill in House, 64 ; 
act adopted, 85 

Congress, Thirty-first, slavery, question 
in, i., 113 

Congress, Thirty-fourth, witnesses first 
distinct victory of the free States, i., 
192 

Congress, Thirty-fifth, debates Lecomp- 
ton constitution, i., 253: committees 
on state of nation, 307 ; manifesto of 
Southern junto, 310 



Index 



441 



Congress, Thirty-sixth, contest for 
Speakership, i., 269 ; pro- slavery res- 
olutions in Senate, 279; Committee of 
House of Representatives reports 
censuring the President, 318; its in- 
action in the early days of 1S61, 321 ; 
caucus of Southern Senators to urge 
secession, 321 ; paralyzed by rapid 
secession movement, 32S ; Special 
Committee plans form of adjustment, 
329 ; plan accepted by both Houses, 
330 ; agreed to by Ohio and Mary- 
land, 330 ; abandoned before rapid 
progress of revolution, 330 ; Com- 
mittee further reports for enforce- 
ment of Fugitive Slave Law, 330 ; 
Senate fails to act on resolution, 
330; Senate Committee of Thirteen, 
331; Senate resolutions of Sevvaid, 
332; Senate resolutions of Davis, 333; 
Senate resolutions of Crittenden, 334; 
articles of Peace Congress introduced, 
335 ; Crittenden resolutions defeated, 

337 

Congress, Thirty-seventh, 11., 32 ; Ga- 
lusha A. Grow chosen Speaker, 33 ; 
message of President, 34 ; debate on, 
36 ; Crittenden resolution for non-in- 
terference, 43 ; provides means to 
carry on war, 44 ; partisanship in, 
45 ; Holman resolution reafhrming 
the Crittenden resolution, 61 ; Trum- 
bull resolution for confiscation of 
slaves, 64 ; Gurley resolution for 
same purpose, 64 ; act suspending 
Sub-Treasury law, 70 ; tariff legisla- 
tion of, 74 ; internal revenue law, 
76 ; financial legislation, 77 ; Legal- 
Tender Act, 78 ; national-bank law, 
79 ; act confiscating slaves, 85 ; en- 
acts new Article of War on slaves, 
88 ; abolishes slavery in District, 88 ; 
incorporates Union Pacific Railroad, 
89 ; grants lands for education, 89 ; 
prescribes iron-clad oath, 90 ; act for 
suspension of habeas corpus, 122 ; 
admits West Virginia, 123 

Congress, Thirty - eighth, Schuyler 
Colfax, Speaker, ii., 141 ; creates 
Lieutenant-Generalcy, 149 ; adopts 
Thirteenth Amendment, 153 ; takes 
up reconstruction, 163; Sumner's res- 
olution, 163 ; Henry Winter Davis 
reports bill, 164 ; plans for recon- 
struction, 215 ; resolution excluding 
rebellious States from Electoral Col- 
lege, 216; establishes Freedmen's 



Bureau, 216 ; defeats admission of 
Louisiana, 218 

Congress, Thirty-ninth, first under free- 
dom, ii., 249; address of Speaker 
Colfax, 249 ; ability of many mem- 
bers, 250 ; report of Joint Committee 
on Reconstruction, 265 ; the Johnson 
dissenting report, 266 ; passes Civil 
Rights Bill, 269 : passes again over 
veto, 271; adopts Fourteenth Amend- 
ment, 275 ; financial legislation, 279; 
passes Tenure-of-Office Bill, 302 ; also 
bill for equal suffrage in District of 
Columbia, 303 ; passes same over 
veto, 303 ; passes bills for admission 
of Nebraska and Colorado, 304 ; also 
for control of suffrage in Territories, 
305 ; bill for military rule in South 
introduced, 305 ; passed by House, 
310; substitute bill in Senate, 310; 
passed over veto, 313 ; establishes 
education department, 316 ; passes 
Bankruptcy law, 316 

Congress, Fortieth, anti-administration 
majorities, ii., 298; new members, 
317 ; repeals bill retiring greenbacks, 
334 ; passes Refunding Bill, 336 ; 
resolution for impeachment of Presi- 
dent, 338 ; House appoints managers, 
339 ; impeachment fails, 339 ; repeals 
cotton tax, 372 ; provides for expa- 
triation, 372 ; withdraws Freedmen's 
Bureau, 372 ; ratifies treaty with 
China, 373 ; adopts Fifteenth Amend- 
ment, 374 

Congress, Forty-first, opening of, ii., 
383 ; repeals Tenure-of-Office law, 
387 ; re-admits remaining disfran- 
chised States, 390 ; discredits repu- 
diation, 405 ; adopts Force Bill of 
1870, 416 ; of 1871, 419 

Congress, Forty-second, adopts second 
Force Bill of 1871. ii., 422 ; supple- 
mentary act, 422 

Congress, Confederate, establishes free 
navigation of Mississippi River, i., 
349 ; calls people to arms, iii, 
214 

Conkling, Roscoe, introduces first form 
of Fourteenth Amendment, ii., 273 

Connecticut, Republican losses and 
gains in, ii., 393 

Conscription in the South, ii., 144 

Constitution, attitude of its makers to 
slavery, i., 2 

Constitutional Union party carries the 
South in i860, i., 299 



442 



Index 



Convention, Anti-Slavery, at Worcester 
in 1849, i., 97 

Convention, Constitutional Union, nom- 
inates Bell for the Presidency, i., 293; 
its platform, 294 

Convention, Democratic, of Hamilton 
County, Ohio, denounces tariff of 
1842, i., 135; of Ohio, ii., 90; of 
Pennsylvania, 92; of Ohio, nominates 
Rosecrans, 394 

Convention, Democratic National, at 
Baltimore, 1847, i., 86; of 1852, 156; 
of 1856, 219; platform as to slavery, 
221 

Convention, Democratic National, of 
1S60, i., 280; split over the platform, 
281; regular convention is held in 
Baltimore, 2S3; nominates Stephen 
A. Douglas, 283; minority hold sep- 
arate convention in Richmond, 2S2; 
nominate John C. Breckinridge, 283 

Convention, Democratic National, of 
1864, ii., 186; nominates George B. 
McClellan, 190; revolutionary spirit, 
191 

Convention, Democratic National, of 
1868, ii., 351; candidates before, 351, 
financial policy of, 356; denunciation 
of reconstruction, 357; nominates 
Seymour, 359 

Convention, Free-Soil in Ohio in 1849, 
i., 97; National, at Buffalo, in 1849, 

98 

Convention, Know-Nothing, in 1855, 
split on question of slavery, i., 194; 
of 1S56, 229; rupture over slavery, 
229; Southern section nominates Mil- 
lard Fillmore, 230; Northern section 
nominates Nathaniel P. Banks, 230 

Convention, Montgomery, i., 348 

Convention, Radical, nominates Fre- 
mont for Presidency, ii., 176 

Convention, Republican, of Ohio en- 
dorses President Johnson, ii., 238; of 
New York, 294 

Convention, Republican National Con- 
ference, of 1856, i., 223; Francis P. 
Blair made chairman, 224; platform 
as to slavery, 225; Republican Na- 
tional Delegate of 1856, 225; nomi- 
nates John C. Fremont, 226 

Convention, Republican National, at 
Chicago, in i860, i., 2S4; candidates 
for nomination, 286; occupies "The 
Wigwam," 290; George Ashmun pre- 
sides, 290 

Convention, Republican National, of 



1868, ii., 344; the platform, 347; 
nominates General Grant, 349 

Convention of soldiers and sailors at 
Pittsburg, ii., 297 

Convention, the Southern and Western 
Liberty, of 1845, i., 74 

Convention, Southern loyalist, at Phila- 
delphia, ii,, 292; address to the 
North, 292 

Convention, Union-Republican, at Bal- 
timore, ii., 177; nominates Mr. 
Lincoln, 178 

Convention, Union, at Philadelphia, 
ii.. 282; resolutions, 287; at Phila- 
delphia, ii., 290 

Convention, Whig National, of 1849, 
i., 96; of 1852, 158; its concessions to 
slavery, 159; of 1856, accepts nom- 
ination of Fillmore from Southern 
Know-Nothings, 230 

Cooper Institute meeting, December, 
1S67, ii., 343 

Corwin, Thomas, on Mexican War, i., 
79; his famous speech against the 
Mexican War, 87; Whig effort in 
Ohio to nominate for Presidency, 91; 
his anti-slavery views in 1848, 92-95; 
on the Free-Soil candidacy of Van 
Buren,ioi; opposes Compromise Bill, 
123; great speech against slavery in 
Thirty-sixth Congress, 271; replies to 
S. S. Cox, 273; Minister to Mexico, 
ii., 9 

Cotton, embargo on, ii., 52 

Covode Committee of investigation, i., 
278 

Cowan, Edgar, of Pennsylvania, dis- 
cusses reconstruction, ii., 216 

Cox, General Jacob, favors expatriation 
of negroes, ii., 241 

Cox, S. S., sympathy with the South in 
Thirty-sixth Congress,!., 273; oppo- 
ses Force Bill, ii., 419 

Crawford, Martin J., of Georgia, 
threatens hanging for Beecher, i., 
270 

Crenshaw, Judge, discussion in Clarissa 
case, i., 197 

Creole, case of the slaver, i., 61; brought 
before Congress by Joshua R. Gid- 
dings, 67 

Crimean War, American sympathy with 
Russia, i., 218 

Crittenden, John J., son of, joins fili- 
bustering expedition to Cuba, i., 150; 
and is captured and executed, 151; 
honorable conduct in Lecompton con- 



Index 



443 



Crittenden — Continued. 

troversy, 255; resolutions in Thirty- 
sixth Congress, 334; opposes secession, 
346; urges loyalty on his son, ii., 27; 
introduces resolution for non-inter- 
ference with slavery, 43; his loyalty, 
127 

Crothers, Samuel, as anti-slavery leader, 

i-. 9 

Cuba, filibustering expedition led by 
Lopez, i., 150; government of United 
States opposes relinquishment by 
Spain, 152; possible seizure justified 
by Ostend Manifesto, 262; resolution 
for seizure introduced in Congress, 
262; supported by Senator Slidell, 
opposed by Crittenden and Chandler, 
262; evil features of Spanish govern- 
ment, 263 

Curtis, Benjamin R., dissenting opinion 
in Dred Scott case, i., 247; criticises 
suspension of habeas corpus Act, ii., 

97 
Curtis, George W., endorses Hayes s 
position on reconstruction, ii., 433- 

434 
Cushing, Caleb, made Attorney-General, 
i., 164; envoy to South Carolina, ii., 
2 



Dana, Richard H., opinion of Lincoln, 

ii., 173 

Davis, Garrett, opposes emancipation, 
ii., 83 

Davis, Jefferson, on happy lot of the 
slave, i., 37 ; demands Missouri Com- 
promise line, 118 ; made Secretary of 
War, 163 ; denies existence of dis- 
union in Mississippi in 185 1, 163 ; is 
refuted by Hodgson, 163 ; introduces 
Congressional resolution for the 
seizure of Cuba, 262 ; supported by 
Senator Slidell, 262 ; opposed by 
Senators Crittenden and Chandler, 
263 ; submits pro-slavery resolutions 
in Senate, 279 ; criticises President's 
message, 322 ; distinguishes nullifica- 
tion from secession, 323 ; maintains 
constitutional right of secession, 323- 
328 ; resolutions in Thirty-sixth Con- 
gress, 333 ; inaugural address, 350 ; 
ii., 9 ; his annual address, 51 ; hopes 
for co-operation of Northwest, 107 ; 
his call for troops, 121 ; appeals to 
Southern enthusiasm, 195 ; partly ac- 
cepts military service for slaves, 199 



Davis, Reuben, of Mississippi, threatens 
secession, i., 270 

Dayton, William L. ,■ minister to France, 
ii., 9 

Debt-refunding bill introduced by 
Sherman, ii., 336; fails to receive 
President's approval, 336 

Democratic ; see Convention 

Democrats, extreme Southern, hold 
caucus in 1849, i., 107; victories in 
1851, 139; soft-shell and hard-shell, 
144; peace, ii., loi ; carry Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, loS ; constitutional, 
115; "copperhead," oppose Thir- 
teenth Amendment, 241 ; recover 
control in various Southern States, 

425 

Denham, Obed, gift of land with anti- 
slavery conditions, i., 10 

Dickson, William M., opposes expatria- 
tion of negroes, ii., 242 

Dicky, James H., as anti-slavery leader, 

i-. 9 

Dicky, William, as anti-slavery leader, 
i., 9 

Dix, John A., appointed Secretary of 
the" Treasury at dictation of the 
bankers, i., 320; his prompt action 
at New Orleans, 320 

Douglas, Stephen A., suggests new 
policy, i., 155 ; favors repeal of Mis- 
souri'Compromise in Nebraska case, 
170; responsible for fraudulent 
government in Kansas, 188 ; divided 
Democratic opinion concerning, 256 ; 
Senate speech on Kansas, April, 1856, 
227 ; results of his attitude in Lecomp- 
ton controversy, 257 ; joint debate 
with Lincoln, 259 ; classifies Demo- 
crats, 277 ; nominated for President, 
283; conducts his own campaign, 297; 
criticises Lincoln administration, ii., 
12 ; on fall of Sumter, 14; scolds Il- 
linois Democrats, 15 ; his Chicago 
speech, 15 ; his death, 15 

Drake, Charles D., supports Fifteenth 
Amendment, ii., 376; interprets 
Fourteenth Amendment, 377 

Dred Scott case, i., 246-249; political 
results of decision, 268 

Dunn, J. P., Jr., on slavery in Indiana, 



Early, General, raids into Pennsylvania, 
ii., 181 



444 



Index 



Edmunds, George F., on Fourteenth 

Amendment, ii., 377 
Education department, established by 

Congress, ii., 316 
Elections of i860, i., 298; of 1862, 

ii., 98; of 1863, 137; of 1864, 193; 

of 1866, Republican victories. 29S ; 

of 1867, Republican reverses, 318 ; of 

1868, Republican gains, 363 ; of 1869, 

399 

Electoral campaign of 1848 favors re- 
turn to Republican principles, i., 103 

Eldridge, Charles A., denounces bill 
for military government of South, ii., 
312 ; introduces refunding measure, 
336 ; opposes Fifteenth Amendment, 
375 i opposes Force Bill, 419 

Ellsworth, Colonel, his death, ii., 34 

Emancipation, Southern plan for grad- 
ual, i., 109; Whig's plan for, in 
Kentucky, iii ; forms basis for an 
opposition party, ii., 82 ; opposed by 
Garrett Davis, 83 ; and by Indian- 
apolis "sympathizers," 84; Mr. Lin- 
coln's attitude, 86 ; is criticised by 
S. P. Chase, 94 ; is proclaimed, 95 ; 
effect on the country, 95 ; approved 
by press of New York City, 95 ; de- 
nounced by George D. Prentice, 96 ; 
denounced by Horatio Seymour, 104 

Emigration from the South to new 
States, i., 12 

Enterprise, case of the slaver, i., 60; 
Calhoun on, i., 60 

Erie riots, i., 180 

Evarts, William M., powerful speaker, 
i., 291 

Everett, Edward, favors restriction of 
press in interests of slavery, i., 43 

Ewing, Thomas, jubilant over Unionism 
in Ohio, ii., 48 



Fessenden, William P., opinion of im- 
peachment, ii., 342 ; his death, 406 

Fihbustering expedition to Nicaragua 
under Walker, i., 260; thwarted by 
Commodore Paulding, 261 ; Paulding 
censured by the President, 261 

Fillmore, President, congratulates coun- 
try upon acquiescence in Compromise 
measures, i., 149; nominated for 
Presidency by Southern Know-Noth- 
ings, 230 ; his nomination accepted 
by Whig Convention, 230 ; nullifying 
speech by, 234 



Financial condition of the North, ii., 18 

Financial situation in early days of war, 
ii., 74 

Finck, William E., opposes bill for 
military governments, ii., 307 

Fitzpatrick, Senator Benjamin, of Ala- 
bama, opposes secession, i., 328 

Florida secedes, i., 328 ; Democrats gain 
control, ii., 427 

Floyd, John B., Secretary of War, his 
treachery, i., 318 ; resigns, 319 

Foote, Henry S. , on California as free 
territory, i., 82 

Force Bill, of 1870, its adoption, its pro- 
visions, ii., 416 ; its inadequacy, 417 ; 
the Nation on the principle, 418 ; 
opinion by J. G. Blaine, 418 ; of 
1871, its adoption, its provisions, 
419 ; an additional bill, 421; its pro- 
visions, 422 ; of 1872, made a clause 
of appropriation bill, 424 

Fort Pillow massacre, ii., 150 

Fortress Monroe threatened by South, 
ii., 9 

Foster, Stephen S., violent language as 
to slaveholders, i., 40 

France withdraws her army from Mex- 
ico, ii., 330 

Freedmen's Bureau, established by Con- 
gress, ii., 216; withdrawn from South, 
372 ; its relation to reconstruction, 

413 

Fremont, John C, nominated for the 
Presidency in 1856, i., 226 ; the North 
accepts his candidacy with enthusi- 
asm, 230 ; gains the support of men 
of letters, 233 ; commands in Mis- 
souri, ii., 57 ; loss of military pres- 
tige, 58 ; proclaims martial law in 
Missouri, 58 ; also confiscation of 
slaves, 58 ; his removal, 61 ; nomi- 
nated by Radical Republicans, 176 

Friends opposition to slavery, i., 4; 
emigration to the Northwest, 9 ; their 
calm discussion of slavery, 36 

Fugitive slave domiciled in Ohio, requi- 
sition refused in 1808, i., 20; Venus 
kidnapped from Ohio, 21 

Fugitive .Slave Law, legislation against, 
in Massachusetts, i., 72; enactment 
in 1850, 128 ; enforcement of, 145 ; 
courts of Wisconsin nullify, 212 

Fugitive Slave Law, cases : Margaret 
Morgan, i., 68 ; South Bend case, 70 ; 
John van Zant, 70 ; George Latimer, 
72 ; Thomas H. Sims, 146 ; Jerry 
McHenry, 147; George H. Moore, 



Index 



445 



Fugitive Slave Law — Continued. 

148 ; Kauffman, 196; Lemmon, 196; 
Clarissa, 197 ; Williamson, 197 ; Ro- 
setta, 198 ; Brooks, 200 ; Simon Gar- 
ner, 201 ; Prigg, 204 ; Greene County 
rescue, 205 ; Ohio vs. Marshals, 20S ; 
Dred Scott, 246 

Fugitive slaves, attitude of Legislature 
of Kentucky, i., 20-22 



" Gag Resolutions" in Congress, i., 46 

Garfield, James A., enters public life, 
ii., 141 : supports bill for military 
governments, 309 

Garner, Simon, fugitive slave case in 
Ohio, i., 201 ; returned to master by 
United States Court of Ohio, 204 ; 
Governor Chase condemns decision, 
211 

Garrison, William Lloyd, as a pioneer 
for emancipation, i., 6, 12 

General Ramirez, privateer and slaver, 
i., 29 

Gentry, M. P., of Tennessee, intro- 
duces resolution approving compro- 
mise measures, i., 154 

Georgia, resolutions in Legislature 
against slavery, i., 23 ; law directed 
at Wilmot Proviso, 115 ; Greene 
County opposes secession of State, 
302 ; Hancock County takes similar 
action, 302 ; secedes, 328 ; still un- 
reconciled to reconstruction, ii., 402 ; 
early escape from carpet-bag rule, 
410 ; elects Greeley electors, 425 

Giddings, Joshua R., on John Quincy 
Adams's " Dissolution of the Union " 
speech, i., 66; brings the Creole case 
before Congress, 67; is censured by 
resolutions, 67 ; resigns his seat in 
Congress, 68 

Golden Circle, Knights of, ii., 108 

Gorsuch, Edward, slave owner, killed in 
resistance to Fugitive Slave Law, i., 
147 

Gosport Navy Yard, seized by the Con- 
federacy, ii., 21 

Grant, U. S., appointed Lieutenant- 
General, ii., 149; discountenances 
attempts to nominate him to Presi- 
dency, 176 ; captures Lee's army, 
223 ; opposes removal of Sheridan, 
323 ; appointed Secretary of War, 
337 ; movement for his nomination; 
343 ; nominated by Republicans, 349, 



inauguration of, 380 ; his inaugural 
address, 382 ; appoints his cabinet, 
384; message on ratification of Fif- 
teenth Amendment, 406 ; concession 
to Congress, 409 ; recommends legis- 
lation to enforce laws, 420 ; pro- 
clamation to South Carolina, 420 ; 
proclamation for " Kuklux Act," 423; 
proclamations in South Carolina, 
423 ; suspends habeas corpus writ 
in nine counties, 423 ; report to Con- 
gress on South Carolina, 424 ; ends 
disorder in Louisiana by proclamation, 
426 ; proclaims disorders in Missis- 
sippi, 426 ; denounces annual out- 
breaks in South, 427 ; attitude on 
reconstruction, 432 
Greeley, Horace, distrusts the results of 
compromise measures, i., 149 ; desires 
National Convention to ignore slav- 
ery, 153 ; denounces coercion of se- 
cession, 312 ; names Chase for leader, 
ii., 319; calls for manhood suffrage, 

319 

Greenbacks, withdrawal of, stopped by 
act of Congress, ii., 334; Sherman's 
attitude thereon, 334; depreciation in 
1S69, 396 

Grier, Judge, decision in Kauffman case, 
i., 196 

Grimes, James W., opinion of impeach- 
ment, ii., 342 

Grow, Galusha A., Speaker of Thirty- 
seventh Congress, ii., 33 

Gurley, John A., of Ohio, introduces 
bill for confiscation of slaves, ii., 64 

H 

Habeas Corpus, nature of the Common 
Law writ of, i., 210; suspension of, 
ii., 28; power claimed for Congress 
by Chief Justice, 29; divided public 
opinion concerning, 29; the President 
claims power, 30; Congress confers 
power on the President, 30; John 
Sherman challenges President's claim, 
38; proclamation of suspension, 96; 
effect of proclamation, 97; enabling 
act passed, 122 

Hale, John P., on Southern policy, i., 
267 ; criticises President's Message. 
313; speech of, against increase of 
army, ii., 37 

Halleck, General, expels negroes from 
his camp, ii., 59 

Hamilton, Senator William T., of Mary- 
land, opposes Force Bill, ii., 417 



446 



Index 



Hammond, Charles, on slavery in Ter- 
ritories, i., 22; anti-slavery resolutions 
in Ohio, 23 
Hampton Roads, peace conference at, 

ii., 210 
Hampton, Wade, favors advancement of 
negro, ii., 322; nominated for Gov- 
ernor of South Carolina by Demo- 
crats, 428; gains the State from Cham- 
berlain, 428 ; pledge for colored men, 
432 
Hancock, General, a possible Presiden- 
tial candidate, ii., 351 
Hannegan, Senator, of Indiana, on the 

Oregon Question, i., 81 
Harper, Chancellor, of South Carolina, 

on slavery, i., 75 
Harper's Ferry, occupied by Confed- 
eracy, ii., 20 
Harris, Benjamin G., expresses sym- 
pathy for South, ii., 147; censured 
by the House, 147 
Haverhill, Mass., petition for dissolu- 
tion of Union, i., 65 
Hayes, Rutherford B., denounces Fugi- 
tive Slave Law, i. , 14S ; on the Dred 
Scott decision, 247 ; his opinion on 
reconstruction, ii., 268 ; attitude on 
reconstruction, 432 ; endorsed by G. 
W. Curtis, 433 ; and by Colonel Hig- 
ginson, 434 
Hayne, Colonel, " Special Envoy " from 

South Carolina, i., 317 
Hayne-Webster debate on slavery, i., 

33 

Hayti, President recommends recogni- 
tion of, ii., 57 

Helper, H. R., his Impending Crisis, 
i., 269; discussed in Thirty-sixth 
Congress, 269 ; Legislature of Mary- 
land condemns book, 275 

Hendricks, Thomas A., opposes Thir- 
teenth Amendment, ii., 155 ; a pos- 
sible Presidential candidate, 353 ; 
opposes Fifteenth Amendment, 376 

Hicks, Governor, of Maryland, prevents 
secession, ii., 21 

Higby, William, of California, supports 
Thirteenth Amendment, ii., 156 

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, en- 
dorses Hayes's position on reconstruc- 
tion, ii., 434 

Hill, Benjamin H., opposes secession 
of Georgia, i., 302 

Hoar, Samuel, of Massachusetts, ex- 
pelled from South Carolina, i., 345 

Holden, William W., appointed pro- 



visional governor of North Carolina, 
ii., 237 

Holman, William S., offers resolution 
reaffirming Crittenden resolution, ii., 
61 ; motion laid on the table, 61 

Holt, Joseph, his war speeches, ii., 47 

Houston, General Samuel, supports 
candidacy of Fremont, i,, 234; as 
Governor of Texas opposes seces- 
sion, 310 

Howard, William A., opposes Fifteenth 
Amendment, ii., 375 

Humphreys, D. C, warlike utterance 
of, ii., 51 

Hunker Democracy, recognized by 
Polk, i,, 85 ; controversy with Barn- 
burners, 86 

Hunter, R. M. T., peace commissioner 
to North, ii., 2IO ; misrepresents Mr. 
Lincoln, 213 

I 

Illinois, pro-slavery sentiment domi- 
nant in 1822, i., 25 

Illinois territory, Black Laius of, i., 17 

Impeachment of President Johnson, 
resolution for, ii., 338 ; managers of, 
339 ; failure of, 339 ; argument of 
his defence, 340 ; justification of the 
attempt, 341 

Indiana Legislature, treasonable con- 
duct of, ii., 108 

Indianapolis, convention of "sympa- 
thizers" oppose emancipation, ii., 84; 
mass-meeting, 114; resolutions of, 

"5 
Indian Territory, Black Laws of, i., 17 
Indians, treaties for removal of, from 

Ohio, i., 10; opinion on slavery, 11 
Industrial progress in 1848, i., 130; 

condition of the country in 1866, ii., 

336 ; in 1868, 395 
Internal revenue legislation, ii., 76 
Intimidation policy in South, ii., 415 
Iowa Democrats oppose Fifteenth 

Amendment, ii., 399 
Iron-clad Oath, prescribed by Congress, 

ii., 90 
Iverson, Senator Alfred, threatens se- 
cession, i., 309 ; chides Maryland and 

Virginia, 349 

J 

Jackson, Andrew, recommends refusal 
of the mails to anti-slavery publica- 
tions, i., 43 ; his view of nullification. 



Index 



447 



Jackson, Andrew — Continued. 

324 ; on strategic position of South, 
326 ; his patriotic words in 1S58, 327 ; 
contrasted with Buchanan, ii., 2 ; let- 
ter to Rev. Andrew J. Crawford, 2 

Jenckes, Thomas A., of Rhode Island, 
introduces bill for civil service re- 
form, ii., 378 

Johnson, Andrew, opposes secession in 
the Senate, i., 314; introduces reso- 
lution for non-interference with sla- 
very, ii., 43 ; his attitude toward 
rebellion, 232 ; toward negro suf- 
frage, 233 ; opinion on status of Ten- 
nessee, 233 ; on reconstruction, 234 ; 
modifies Lincoln's Louisiana plan, 
235 ; dictates policy for North Caro- 
lina, 237 ; his Cabinet, 238 ; first 
message to Thirty-ninth Congress, 
251; vetoes Civil Rights Bill, 269; 
alienates Republican leaders, 270 ; 
changes in his cabinet, 289 ; his cam- 
paign tour, 290 ; his intemperate 
speeches, 295 ; his New York speech, 
296 ; his second annual message, 299; 
determination to override Congress, 
301; vetoes Tenure-of-Ofifice Bill, 302; 
also District of Columbia Bill, 303 ; 
vetoes Nebraska and Colorado bills, 
304 ; also bill for government of 
South, 313 ; and legislation supple- 
mental thereto, 314; seeks to defeat 
reconstruction acts, 317; and to dis- 
credit military leaders, 322 ; violent 
support in South, 324 ; third annual 
message, 326 ; resolution for his im- 
peachment, 33S ; impeachment fails, 
339 ; his last annual message, 370 ; 
proclaims full amnesty, 371 ; suggests 
repudiation, 372 ; antagonizes Con- 
gress, 409 

Johnson, Reverdy, advocates Thir- 
teenth Amendment, ii., 153 ; conflict- 
ing statements on civil rights, 273 
Johnston, Joseph E., surrenders to 
General Sherman, ii., 225 

Journal of Commerce approves of con- 
fiscation of slaves, ii., 62 

Julian, George W., claims Charles 
Osborne as the pioneer of emancipa- 
tion, i., 6 



Kane, Judge, of Federal Court of 
Pennsylvania, supports Fugitive Slave 
law, i., 197 



Kansas, first legislature elected by 
Missourians, i., 186; adopts Slave 
code, 187 ; Fugitive Slave Laws, 188 ; 
ignores popular sovereignty principle, 
191; adjourns to await the action of 
Congress, 192; debate in the Senate, 
227; reign of mob law, 241; first ter- 
ritorial election, 250; constitutional 
convention, 250; adopts a pro- 
slavery constitution, 251 ; which is 
submitted to a popular election, and 
rejected, 252 

Kansas-Nebraska Bill becomes law, i., 
173; repeals Missouri Compromise, 
173; Northern clergy remonstrate 
against, 174; Southern justification 
of, 176; Alexander H. Stephens 
approves, 177; John Bell, of Tennes- 
see, opposes, 177; protests from the 
North, 1S3; causes free working pop- 
ulation to leave Democratic party, 

Kasson, John A., criticises bill for 
military governments, ii., 309 

Kauffman, Daniel, fugitive slave case, 
i., 196 

Kellogg, William P., nominated for 
governor of Louisiana by Republi- 
cans, ii., 425 

Kendall, Amos, Postmaster-General, 
refuses mail service to anti-slavery 
publications, i., 42 

Kentucky, legislature, of, fugitive slave 
resolutions, i., 20; Fugitive Slave Law 
of 1S20, 45; Whigs, plan for gradual 
emancipation. III; Democrats cap- 
ture constitutional convention of 
1849, in; intolerance at Berea, 275; 
holds to the Union, ii., 26; secession- 
ists entertain Vallandigham, 47; turns 
down Union men, 319; selects Greeley 
electors, 425 

Kerr, Michael C, opposes Force Bill, 
ii., 419 

Key We.st threatened by South, ii., 

9 
King, Senator Preston, speech agamst 

increase of army, ii., 37 
King, William R., of Alabama, on 

Creole case, i., 62 
Knights of the Golden Circle, organiza- 

tion of, ii., ic8; invade the army, in; 

protest of soldiers, 112; detected by 

secret service, 148 
Knights, Order of American, treason- 
able designs of, ii., 185; warned by 

Governor Brough, 185 



448 



Index 



Know-Nothing party, the rise of, i., 
183; Convention of 1855, split on 
question of slavery, 194; elects 
Governor of Massachusetts in 1855, 
194 
" Ku Klux Act," origin of, ii., 421 
Ku Klux Klan, origin of, ii., 415 ; 
characterized by W. G. Brown, 416 



Lamar, L. Q. C, on slavery views of 
Calhoun, i., i 

Lane, Senator James H., predicts civil 
war in the North, i., 311 

Lawrence, Kansas, destroyed by Border 
Ruffians, i., 232 

Leavitt, Judge, decision in Garner 
case, i., 204; decision in Marshals' 
case, 208 

Lecompte, Samuel D., appointed Chief 
Justice of Kansas, i., 188 

Lecompton Constitution, adopted in 
convention, i., 250; debate on in 
Senate, 253; rejected by the people 
of Kansas, 254 

Lee, Robert E., surrenders to General 
Grant, ii., 223 

Legal-tender policy, ii., 72; Act of 1862, 
78 

Leggett, William, denounces Postmas- 
ter-General, i., 45; denounces Mr. 
Van Buren in 1837, i., 48 

Lemmon, Jonathan, of Virginia, fails to 
recover his slaves in a New York 
court, i., ig6 

Liberal Republican movement started, 
ii-, 393 

Liberator, The, on the candidacy of 
Fremont, i., 237 

Liberia, President recommends recog- 
nition of, ii., 57 

Lieber, Francis, letters to Calhoun on 
constitutional aspect of slavery, i., 
"5 

Lincoln, Abraham, on the Kansas- 
Nebraska Compromise, i., 258; joint 
debate with Douglas, 259; Presidential 
candidate in Chicago Convention, 2S9; 
nominated by Chicago Convention, 
293; importance of his election, 295; 
his election foreshadowed by October 
elections, 298; opposes compromise, 
346; Western tour, ii., 2; threats of 
violence to, 3; inauguration of, 4; 
his address, 5; his Cabinet, 7; its 



differing opinions, 11 ; proclaims 
blockade, 28; message to Congress, 
34; contrasted with Jefferson, 36; 
his first annual message, 50; justifies 
blockade, 54; modifies Fremont's 
proclamation, 58; disapproves But- 
ler's "contraband of war," 59; his 
attitude toward emancipation, 86; 
seeks to avoid the issue, 94; proclaims 
emancipation, 95; proposes compen- 
sation for slaves, 102; defends treat- 
ment of Vallandigham, 133; replies 
to committee from Ohio, 134; his 
third annual message, 141; his recon- 
struction policy, 161; proceeds to 
enforce it, 162; defeats Congressional 
bill for reconstruction, 168; defends 
his course in proclamation, 169; his 
touch with the people, 171; his lack 
of harmony with officials, 172; Chase's 
opinion of him, 174; criticised by 
radicals, 174; endorsed by Ohio 
Unionists, 175; nominated by Balti- 
more Convention, 178; dictates nom- 
ination of Andrew Johnson, 178; 
accept's Chase's resignation, 183; 
plans for his withdrawal as a can- 
didate, 186: determination to govern 
to end of his term, 191 ; fourth annual 
message, 203; admits peace commis- 
sioners, 210; his second inaugural, 
2ig; his assassination, 229; compared 
to William of Orange, 230 

London Times criticises violation of 
neutrality Laws by British Agents, i., 
217 ; on Congress of Ostend, 221 

Long, Alexander, recommends recog- 
nition of South, ii., 146; censured by 
the House, 147 

Longstreet, General, accepts military 
control of South, ii., 320 

Lopez, General Marisco, leads filibus- 
tering expedition to Cuba, i., 150 

Louisiana, secedes, i., 328; first attempts 
at reconstruction, ii., 162; excluded 
from electoral College, 215; Congress 
refuses to recognize its government, 
218; recognized by President John- 
son, 23S; Constitutional Convention, 
280; broken up by armed mob, 282; 
election riots of 1868, 365; Henry C. 
Warmoth, governor, 425 ; Kellogg and 
McEnery controversy, 426; Packard 
and NichoUs contest for the State, 
429; visiting committees from the 
North, 430; President's commission- 
ers, 431; troops withdrawn, 431 



Index 



449 



Lowell, James Russell, criticises aboli- 
tionists, i., 99 

Lundy, Benjamin, as a pioneer for 
emancipation, i., 6; his Genius of 
Universal Emancipation, I2 

Lyon, Nathaniel, General, killed at 
Wilson's Creek, ii., 57 
M 

McClellan, George B., nominated by 
Chicago Convention, ii., igo 

McClernand, John A., denounces 
Burnett of Kentucky, ii., 38 

McClure, Alex. K., notes Lincoln's 
dejection, ii., 187 

McCuUoch, Hugh, made Comptroller 
of the Currency, ii., 81 ; his funding 
operations, 335 

McDuffie, George, Governor of South 
Carolina, on slavery, i., 75 

McEnery, John, nominated for Gov- 
ernor of Louisiana by Democrats, ii. , 
426 

McHenry, Jerry, fugitive slave case at 
Syracuse, i., 147 

McLean, John, Judge of Federal Court 
of Ohio, sustains Fugitive Slave Law, 
i., 201 ; decision in Prigg case, 204 ; 
in Greene County case, 206 ; in Mar- 
shals' case, 208 ; in Jenkins's case, 
208 ; dissenting opinion in Dred 
Scott case, 247 

McLean, Washington, a possible Presi- 
dential candidate, ii., 351 

Mahan, John B., as anti-slavery leader, 
i., 10; successfully requisitioned by 
Governor of Kentucky, 44 

Mallory, Stephen R., favors advance- 
ment of negro, ii , 321 

" Manifest destiny of America," mean- 
ing of the phrase, i., 155 

Marcy, William L., Governor of New 
York, favors restriction of press in 
interests of slavery, i., 43 

Marshall, Humphrey, introduces resolu- 
tion approving compromise measures 
in Whig caucus, i., 154 

Marshall, Thomas F., leads assault on 
J. Q. Adams in Congress, i., 65 

Maryland, strategic position of, ii., 20 ; 
Governor Hicks averts secession, 21 ; 
selects Greeley electors, 425 

Mason, James M.,of Virginia, on Ordi- 
nance of 1787, i., 4; seized on the 
Trent, ii., 54 

Maximilian, of Mexico, his execution, 
ii-, 331 

VOL. 11.-29. 



Maynard, Horace, of Tennessee, on 
admission of West Virginia, ii., 126 

Methodist General Conference in 1836 
condemns abolitionism, i., 39 

Mexico, war with, political results of, 
i., 78 ; the French occupation of, ii., 
139 ; bearing on Monroe Doctrine, 
139 ; French army withdrawn, 330 

Military Rule in South, bill for, intro- 
duced in Congress, ii., 305 ; passed 
by House, 310 ; substitute bill in 
Senate, 310 ; becomes law, 313 

Minnesota admitted as free State, i., 
269 

Mississippi, elects Compromise gov- 
ernor, i., 138 ; secedes, 328 ; excluded 
from Electoral College, ii. ,307; radical 
Republicans triumph, 403; Legislature 
asks Grant for military aid, 426 ; 
Governor Ames does the same, 426 ; 
Democrats gain control of State, 
427 

Missouri, Legislature of endorses 
policy of Calhoun, in 1849, i-> 108 ; 
opposition to Northern emigration 
to Kansas, 186 ; Governor Jackson 
plans for its secession, ii., 31 ; 
thwarted by Unionists, 31 ; selects 
Greeley electors, 425 

Missouri Compromise, repealed by bill 
for admission of Nebraska in 1854, 
i., 173; remonstrance of Northern 
clergyman against repeal, 174 ; Ste- 
p?ien A, Douglas replies to remon- 
strance, 174 ; Douglas asserts that 
Compromise of 1850 makes it void, 
175; assertion not well founded, 178; 
effect of repeal on Whig party in the 
South, 179 ; produces anti-Nebraska 
party, 185 

Montgomery Convention, i., 348 

Moore, George H., fugitive slave case, 
i., 148 

Morgan, Edwin D., opposes Fifteenth 
Amendment, ii., 374 

Morgan, John, raids Indiana and Ohio, 
ii., 137 

Mormons, General Johnstons expedi- 
tion against, i., 260 

Morris, Daniel, of New York, supports 
Thirteenth Amendment, ii., 156 

Morris, Thomas, as anti-slavery leader, 
i., 10 

Morton, Oliver P., great war governor, 
ii., no 

Mulligan, Colonel, surrenders at Lex- 
ington, ii., 57 



450 



Index 



N 



Nation, the, on force legislation, ii., 
418 

A^ational Intelligencer deprecates eman- 
cipation, ii., 62 

Nebraska, first bill to organize Terri- 
tory, i., 168; planof Atchison to bring 
in with slavery, 169 ; Senate bill of 
1854, 169 ; Stephen A. Douglas sup- 
ports Senate bill, 170; introduces 
bill declaring Missouri Compromise 
Bill inoperative, 171 

Negro population in North a menace to 
border States, i., 20 

Negro soldiers, murdered at Fort Pil- 
low, ii., 150; also at Plymouth, N. 
C, 150 ; Grant threatens retaliation, 

151 

Negro votes for constitutional conven- 
tion in Ohio, i., 13 

Negroes, status in Northern States, ii., 
236; expatriation favored by General 
Cox, 241 ; this opposed by Sumner 
and Judge Dickson, 242 ; still op- 
pressed in South, 244 ; proportion in 
several Southern States, 411-412 ; 
hard conditions after close of war, 
412 ; a prey to the carpet-bagger, 413 

Neutrality laws of United States vio- 
lated by British agents, i., 216 ; vio- 
lation criticised by London Times, 217 

New England Emigrant Company, a 
prominent agent in settlement of 
Kansas, i., 185 

New Jersey, Resolutions in Legislature 
against slavery, i., 24 

New Orleans Bulletin denounces frauds 
in Kansas, i., 190 

New York, Pine Street mass-meeting 
for conciliation of the South, i., 340; 
Democrats denounce Fifteenth 
Amendment, ii., 400 

New York Evening Post denounces 
concession, i., 45 ; approves confisca- 
tion of slaves, ii., 62; rates Republican 
party, 31 8 

New York Herald cdiWs for new party 
under Grant, ii., 319 

New York Times fears President John- 
son's defiance of Congress, ii., 298; 
rates Republican party, 318 

New York Tribune calls for manhood 
suffrage, ii., 319 

Nicholas, S. S., Judge, on Chicago Con- 
vention, i., 286 

NichoUs, Francis T,, nominated for 



Governor of Louisiana by Democrats, 
ii., 429 ; pledge to colored men, 431 

North Carolina escapes carpet-bag rule, 
ii., 411 

North, renewed confidence in last year 
of war, ii., 201 

Nye, James \V., on committee on South- 
ern outrages, ii., 421 

O 

Obstruction in South during reconstruc- 
tion attempt, ii., 410 

Ohio, treaties for removal of Indians, 
i., 10 ; negro votes for Constitutional 
Convention, 13; "black laws of 1804" 
and 1807, 14-16; resolutions in Legis- 
lature against slavery in 1824, 23 ; 
law to enforce Fugitive Slave law, 44 ; 
Free-Soil and Democratic coalition in 
Legislature, 102 ; Democrats denounce 
Compromise of 1850, 139 ; campaign 
of 1855, national importance of, 195 ; 
Salmon P. Chase for Governor, 195 ; 
fusion of Unionists, ii., 46 ; Demo- 
cratic minority oppose Government, 
48 ; Unionists endorse President Lin- 
coln, 175 

Omnibus Bill, Henry Clay's, i., 124; 
alienates Southern Whigs from admin- 
istration, 125 ; Southern extremists 
oppose, 125 ; Free-Soil Senators op- 
pose, 125 ; effect of President's death, 
126; results in gains for freedom, 127 ; 
compromise, not a final settlement, 
136 

" Order of American Knights," treason- 
able designs, ii., 185; warned by Gov- 
ernor Brough, 185 

Ordinance of 1787 and the suffrage, i., 

13 

Oregon admitted as free State, i., 269 

Oregon controversy in relation to Texas, 
i., 79; President Polk's attitude to- 
ward, 80 

Osborne, Charles, as a pioneer for 
emancipation, i., 6, 12 ; his daim 
preferred by George W. Julian, i., 6 

Ostend Manifesto, i., 262 



Packard, S. B., nominated for Governor 
of Louisiana by Republicans, ii., 429 

Paine, Judge, decision in the Lemmon 
case, i., 196 

Palmer, Henry S., jubilant over re- 
united Democracy, ii.^ 355 



Index 



45 



Palmerston, Lord, refuses to recognize 
Confederacy, ii., 56 

Parker, Judge, of Hamilton County, 
Ohio, releases fugitive slave, i., 198; 
his decision set aside by the United 
States Circuit Court, 201 

Party leader, moral responsibility of, ii., 
127 

Patton, Governor, of Alabama, discour- 
ages antagonism of whites to blacks, 
ii., 322 

Peace Congress at Washington, i., 335 ; 
its articles, 336 

Peace, great demand for, ii., 192 ; re- 
pudiated by public opinion, 195 

Peck, Rev. John M., anti-slavery leader 
in Illinois, i., 26 

Pendleton, George H., opposes Thir- 
teenth Amendment, ii., 156; attacks 
reconstruction, 167 ; a Presidential 
candidate, 351; the recognized Demo- 
cratic leader, 397 ; his views on the 
greenback, 39S ; on the Fifteenth 
Amendment, 398 

Penn, D. B., leads a revolt in Louisi- 
ana, ii., 426 

Pennsylvania, resolutions in Legislature 
against slavery, i., 24 

Perry, Aaron F., prosecutes Vallandig- 
ham, ii., 130 

Persecution, political, in the South, i.,235 

Philadelphia, mass-meeting for concilia- 
tion of the South, i., 340 

Phillips, Wendell, South uses his lan- 
guage, i., 303 

Pickens, Fort, threatened by South, ii., 
9 ; reinforced, 11 

Pickens, Governor, reply of to President 
Lincoln, ii., 2 

Pierce, Franklin, his Cabinet, i., 162 ; 
influenced by pro-slavery men, 165 ; 
his administration seeks to extend 
slavery, 182 ; condemns nomination 
of Douglas, 283 ; predicts civil war in 
the North, 311 

Piracy, slave-trade declared to be, i., 31 

Political reaction in 1829, i., 15 

Polk, James K., on the annexation of 
Texas, i., 80; on the Oregon Ques- 
tion, 80 

Population, slaveholding, numbers of, 
in 1853, i., 167 

Postmaster-General endorses refusal of 
the mails to anti-slavery publications, 
i., 42 ; President Jackson approves, 43 

Post-office closed to anti-slavery publica- 
tions, i-. 42 



Powell, Senator Lazarus W., of Ken- 
tucky, demands indictment of Presi- 
dent, ii., 120 

Prentice, George D., denounces emanci- 
pation proclamation, ii., 96 

Presbytery, of South Alabama, passes 
resolutions against abolitionists, i., 73 ; 
of West Tennessee passes resolutions 
in interests of slavery, 74 

Press, freedom of, attempt to restrict in 
interests of slavery, i., 43 

Prisoners of war, murdered when black, 
ii., 150 ; horrible treatment at Ander- 
sonville, 151; North held responsible 
by Stephens, 152 

Privateering, attempt of Lord Clarendon 
to restrict, i., 217 

Prosperity in 1852 allays sectional con- 
troversy, i., 144 

Protection policy, failure of Whigs to 
revive, i., 135 

Pryor, Roger A., fiery words, ii., 12 

Puritan principles in the North, ii., 17 



R 



Radicals in Cleveland nominate Fre- 
mont for Presidency, ii., 176 

Railroad, communications inadequate, 
ii., 65 ; Union Pacific, incorporation 
of, 89 

Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, in 1832 
on the slave market, i., 3 

Rankin, Rev. John, as anti-slavery 
leader, i., 9, 11 

Rantoul, Robert, Jr., turned down in 
convention, i., 157 

Raymond, Henry J., accuses National 
Whig Convention of 1852 of bargain, 
i., 158-159; his view of reconstruc- 
tion, ii., 256 ; champions the South, 
28S ; criticises bill for military gov- 
ernments, 30S ; his death, 406 

Reaction, political, in 1829, i., 15 

Reconstruction, becomes practical ques- 
tion, ii., 160; Lincoln's policy, 161 ; 
proceedings to enforce it in Louisi- 
ana, 162 ; and in Arkansas, 163 ; op- 
position of Sumner, 163 ; Henry 
Winter Davis reports bill, 164; Demo- 
cratic opposition, 165 ; opposed by 
Pendleton, 167 ; and by Carlile, 167 ; 
bill supported by Wade, 167 ; pocket- 
vetoed by President, 168 ; who issues 
proclamation for justification, i6g ; 
" protest " by managers of bill, 170 ; 
attitude of President Johnson, 233 ; 



452 



Index 



Reconstruction — Continued. 

opinion of General Schenck, 239 ; of 
Mr. Sumner, of General Boynton, 
240 ; of Thaddeus Stevens, 253 ; of 
Henry J. Raymond, 256 ; of Rufus 
P. Spalding, 257 ; of Samuel Shella- 
barger, 258 ; view of Alex. H. Ste- 
phens, 265 ; of joint committee on 
reconstruction, 265 ; the Johnson dis- 
senting report, 266 ; opinion of R. B. 
Hayes, 268 ; views of Orville H. 
Browning, 290 ; the failure of, 409, 

431 

Reeder, Andrew H., first Governor of 
Kansas, i., 186; dismayed by pro- 
slavery violence, 189 ; removed, suc- 
ceeded by a pro-slavery man, 190 

Republican, Liberal, movement begun, 

ii-, 393 

Republican party, designation used in 
1854, i., 185 ; significant vote in 1856, 
240 ; disclaims intention to interfere 
in internal affairs, 345 ; see Cotiven- 
tion 

Repudiation suggested by President 
Johnson, ii., 372 

"Resurrection, The," Whig campaign 
song, i., 100 

Rice, Senator Benjamin F., on commit- 
tee on Southern outrages, ii., 421 

Richmond, rejoicings over its fall, ii., 
225 

Richmond Enquirer advises North how 
to secure peace, ii., 107 

Richmond Examiner sums up third 
year of war, ii., 142 

Ritter, Governor, of Pennsylvania, op- 
poses restriction of press in interests 
of slavery, i., 43 

Rives, W. C., deprecates civil war, i., 
238 

Rosecrans, William S., refuses Demo- 
cratic nomination for Governor of 
Ohio, ii., 395 

Ruger, General, ordered to sustain 
Governor Chamberlain, ii., 428 ; and 
to withdraw from State House of 
South Carolina, 429 

Russia, her friendly attitude, ii., 56 



Savannah, captured by Sherman, ii., 

205 
Schenck, General, on reconstruction, 

ii., 240 
Schurz, Carl, Minister to Spain, ii., 9 ; 



sent South to observe reconstruction, 
246 

Scott, General, as a Presidential candi- 
date, i., 159 

Scott, Governor, of South Carolina, 
asks military aid, ii., 420 

Scott, Senator John, on committee on 
Southern outrages, ii., 421 

Secession, Richmond Enquirer advises 
upon election of Fremont, i., 236 ; 
resolution in the Senate, 310; Sena- 
torial caucus in the interests of, 321 ; 
convention at Montgomery, 348 

Seminole War in the interests of sla- 
very, i., 49 

Senate debate on Lecompton Constitu- 
tion, i., 253-255 

Seward, William H., on disunion 
sentiment in South in 1849, i., 120; 
opposes Omnibus Bill compromise, 
124 ; popular with Southern politi- 
cians, 165 ; on the " irrepressible 
conflict," 259; his conservative ten- 
dencies, 289 ; Presidential candidate 
in Chicago Convention, 291 ; submits 
resolutions to Thirty-sixth Congress, 
332; "State of the Union" speech, 
ii., 5 ; Secretary of State, 7 ; opinion 
in Trent affair, 55 ; fears anarchy if 
Democrats carry el'sctions, 191 

Seymour, Horatio, discourages coer- 
cion, i., 341 ; demands the Critten- 
den compromise, 346 ; denounces 
arrest of Vallandigham, ii., 132 ; a 
Presidential candidate, 351 ; de- 
nounces military rule, 355 ; and fi- 
nancial misrule, 356 ; nominated for 
Presidency, 360 ; his reluctance, 360 

Shadrack, Frederick, fugitive slave case, 
i., 146 

Shannon, Wilson, succeeds Governor 
Reeder in Kansas, i., 190 ; takes pro- 
slavery position, 190 

Shellabarger, Samuel, defends Presi- 
dent, ii., 121 ; his view on recon- 
struction, 258 ; supports bill for 
military governments, 308 ; moves 
amendment to Senate substitute, 312; 
introduces Force Bill of 1871, 422 

Sherman, John, censured by House of 
Representatives, i., 269; withdraws 
his candidacy as Speaker, 269 ; pro- 
poses immediate admission of Ter- 
ritories as States, 343 ; criticises 
President's habeas corpus policy, ii., 
38 ; supports military policy, 38 ; in- 
troduces substitute bill for govern- 



Index 



453 



Sherman, John — Continued. 

ment of South, 310 ; recommends 
specie resumption, 396 ; introduces 
Senate resolution for a Force Bill, 
421 

Sherman, General, captures Savannah, 
ii., 205 ; his Carolina campaign, 206; 
captures Johnston's army, 225 

Sims, Thomas H., fugitive slave case, 
i., 146 

Sims, W. Gilmore, letter on destitution 
of South, ii., 325 

Slave, breeding, profitableness of, i., 
3 ; trade, declared piracy by United 
States, 31 ; cruelties of, 32 ; requisi- 
tion by Georgia disregarded by Maine, 
50 ; population, in Virginia, log ; la- 
bor, contrasted with free labor in 
Pennsylvania, no; population, in 
Kentucky contrasted with Ohio, no ; 
trade, forbidden in District of Co- 
lumbia, 128 ; labor, industrial effects 
of, 143 ; places government in irre- 
sponsible hands, 181 ; holders, num- 
bers of, in 1853, 167 

Slavery, questioned in Virginia Conven- 
tion of 1829, i., 3 ; opposition of 
Friends to, 4 ; opposed by the 
Churches, 5 ; Woolman's early efforts 
against, 6 ; in Virginia in 1756, 8 ; 
resolutions against, in Legislature of 
Ohio, 1S24, 23 ; of Georgia, 24 ; of 
Pennsylvania, 24 ; of New Jersey, 24; 
Hayne-Webster debate on, 33; roseate 
views of Southern leaders, 37 ; mob 
violence in the interest of, 41 ; intol- 
erance of its supporters, 42 ; bills to 
restrict freedom of press in favor of, 
43 ; complaint of the North that it is 
being nationalized, 51; votes against, 
in election of 1844, defeat Henry Clay, 
76 ; great debate in the Senate in 
1849, 116; sympathizers with, form 
Piatt County Self-defensive Associa- 
tion, 186 ; gradual change of Southern 
opinion on, 182 ; campaign against, 
draws men of letters, 233 ; abolished 
in District of Columbia, ii., 88 ; the 
action lauded by London Times, 89 ; 
Lincoln proposes compensation for 
abolition of, 102 

Slaves, in Missouri, proclaimed by 
Fremont to be confiscated, ii., 58 ; 
President modifies proclamation, 58 ; 
strong Northern sentiment endorses 
Fremont, 59 ; endorsed by Cincinnati 
Gazette, 59 ; Southern proposal for 



their conscription, igS ; originated 
by General Cleburne, 198 ; Jefferson 
Davis partly accepts it, 199 
Slidell, John, seized on the Trent, ii., 

54 

Smith, Caleb B., Secretary of the In- 
terior, ii., 7 

Smith, Gerrit, on Anti-slavery Society, 

i., 19 

Smith, Richard, recommends Lincoln's 
withdrawal, ii., 188 

Smith, William Henry, elected Secre- 
tary of State in Ohio, ii., 298 

Song," The Old Union Wagon," ii., 113 

South, unpreparedness for war, ii., 16 ; 
unhappy condition after the war, 324; 
letter of W. Gilmore Sims concern- 
irig. 325 ; progress of, 402 

South Carolina, prepares for secession, 
i., 300; secedes, 316; appoints com- 
missioners to treat with the United 
States, 316 ; commissioners demand 
withdrawal of United States troops 
from Charleston, 317 ; commissioners 
return home disappointed, 317; out- 
rages on negroes, ii., 245 ; Daniel H. 
Chamberlain, Governor, 425 ; Hamp- 
ton and Chamberlain contest for the 
State, 429 ; troops withdrawn, 429 

Southern Confederacy formed at Mont- 
gomery, i., 328 

Southern men, short-sighted policy of, 
after the war, ii., 412 

Southern Rights Party, i., T38 

Sovereignty, Squatter, effect of doctrine, 
i., 242 ; opinion of Alexander H. 
Stephens, 245 

Spain, her consulate in New Orleans 
assaulted, i., 151 

Spalding, Rufus P., views on reconstruc- 
tion, ii., 257 

Speed, James, deplores Democratic 
control in Kentucky, ii., 320 

Stanbery, Henry, criticises Constitu- 
tional Democrats, ii., 115 ; enters 
Johnson's Cabinet, 2S9 ; his cautious 
policy, 289 

Stanton, Edwin M., appointed Attorney- 
General, i., 320; on fall of Sumter, 
ii., 14 ; suspended by President, 337 ; 
removal of, 338 ; resignation of, 341 

Star of the West, fired on at Charleston, 
ii., 9 

Stephens, Alexander H., on war with 
Mexico, i., 83 ; on disunion senti- 
ment in South in 1849, I2i ; on 
Squatter Sovereignty, 245 ; opinion 



454 



Index 



Stephens, Alexander H. — Continued. 
on the Dred Scott case, 245 ; attitude 
in the Lecompton controversy, 256 ; 
on rupture of Charleston Convention, 
284 ; opposes secession of Georgia, 
302 ; denounces personal liberty 
laws, 343 ; holds North responsible 
for sufferings of prisoners, ii., 152; 
peace commissioner to North, 210 

Stevens, Thaddeus, on admission of 
West Virginia, ii., 124 ; his view of re- 
construction, 254 ; introduces bill for 
military governments, 305 ; opposes 
Senate substitute, 312 

Stewart, Col. Robert, as anti-slavery 
leader, i., 10 

Stockton, Commodore, supports Fugi- 
tive Slave law and slavery in Terri- 
tories, i., 275 

Sumner, Charles, opposes repeal of 
Missouri Compromise in Nebraska 
case, i., 171 ; assaulted in the Senate 
Chamber by Preston S. Brooks, 231 ; 
opposes Lincoln's plan for reconstruc- 
tion, ii., 163 ; opposes expatriation 
of negroes, 242 

Sumter, Fort, Major Anderson takes 
possession, i., 316; threatened by 
South, ii., 9 ; surrender of, 13 ; effect 
on North, 13 

Swayne, Judge, declares constitution- 
ality of Civil Rights Act, ii., 333 



Tariff, of 1846, its industrial effects, i., 
133 ; as viewed by Protectionists, 
134; of 1857, 135; legislation of 
Thirty-seventh Congress, ii., 74 

Taylor, Zachary, as Presidential candi- 
date, i., 99 ; his firmness as President, 
105 ; his Cabinet, 106 ; patriotic mes- 
sage, 114 ; visit to Middle States, 114; 
opposes Omnibus Compromise, 125 

Telegraph connects Atlantic and Pacific, 
ii., 65 

Tennessee, Legislature of, resolutions 
for defence of Union, i., 120 ; East- 
ern part loyal to Union, ii., 66; ex- 
cluded from Electoral College, 215 ; 
recognized by President Johnson, 
238 ; ratifies Fourteenth Amendment, 
278 ; never under carpet-bag rule, 
411 ; selects Greeley electors, 425 

Tenure-of-Office law, repeal of, ii., 387 

Terry, David S., kills Broderick in 
duel, i., 254 



Texas, treaty for its annexation de- 
feated, i., 78; annexation of, relation 
to Oregon Question, 79; President 
Polk's attitude toward, 80; Governor 
resists secession, 310; excluded from 
Electoral College, ii., 367; re-admit- 
ted to representation, 404; selects 
Greeley electors, 425; elects Demo- 
cratic legislature and governor in 
1874. 425 

Thayer, James S., discourages coercion, 
i., 341 

Thomas, General, overthrows Hood, 
ii., 205 

Thomas, Philip F., fails as Secretary of 
the Treasury, i., 320 

Thompson, Jacob, Secretary of the 
Interior, resigns, i., 319 

Thurman, Allen G., drafts Democratic 
platform for Ohio, ii., 90; criticises 
Tenure-of-Office law, 387; opposes 
Force Bill, 419 

Ticknor, George, on the candidacy of 
Fremont, i., 237 

Tilden, Samuel J., makes Horatio 
Seymour governor, ii., 92 

Tod, David, elected Governor of Ohio, 
ii., 49 

Toombs, Robert, expresses extreme 
Southern views, i., 333; demands 
constitutional rights, 344; urges as- 
sault on Fort Sumter, ii., 13 

Treason, how deal with it, ii., 232 

Treaty, Clayton-Bulwer, as affecting 
American diplomacy, i., 223; with 
China, ii., 373 

Treaty-making power, ii., 332 

Trent, seizure of the, ii., 54 

Troops, call for, ii., 19 ; reply of 
Governors of Kentucky and Missouri, 
19; additional call for, 28 

Trumbull, Lyman, on maintenance of 
Union, i., 325; on President's powers, 
ii., 38; introduces bill for confisca- 
tion of slaves, 44; again introduces 
bill for confiscation 63; advocates 
Thirteenth Amendment, 153; opinion 
of impeachment, 342; reports bill to 
repeal Tenure-of-Office act, 388 

Tyler, John B., his Cabinet, i., 127 



U 



Union, petition for dissolution of, i., 
65; mass-meetings, ii., 113; sentiment 
in the border States, 117; meeting at 
Reading, 290 



Index 



455 



United States, economic readiness for 
the war, ii., i6; military unreadiness, 
iS; tinancial preparation, iS 

Upshur, Abel P., on the benefits of 
slavery, i., 76 

Utah, Brigham Young defies national 
government, i., 260 



Vallandigham, Clement J., speech in 
Thirty-sixth Congress, i., 271; fore- 
shadows his later course, 271; enter- 
tained by Kentuckians, ii., 47; arouses 
Democrats against emancipation, 85; 
seeks to disrupt Democracy, 90; 
denounces the war, 105; continually 
attacks President, 118; welcomes 
mediation by Napoleon, 119; his 
determined opposition, 128; denoun- 
ces General Burnside, 129; his arrest, 
130; remarks on Conscription Bill, 
131; sentenced to prison, 131; sent 
within rebel lines, 132; nominated 
for Governor of Ohio, 133 

Van Buren, John, on Democratic as 
anti-slavery party, i., 104 

Van Buren, Martin, pronounced pro- 
slavery views as Presidential candi- 
date, i., 48; views on Texas cause of 
his defeat in 1844, 77; Free-Soil 
candidate in 1848, 98 

Vaux, Roberts, anti-slavery pamphlets, 
i., 27 

Virginia, Legislature of, endorses policy 
of Calhoun in 1849, i-- loS; western 
portion of, not friendly to slavery, 
109; coerced by politicians, ii., 19; 
Alex. H. Stephens comes to from 
Confederacy, 19; excluded from 
Electoral College, 367; restored to 
the Union, 390; first to escape carpet- 
bag rule, 411 

Virginia, West, admitted to Union, 

ii., 123; opposition in Senate, 124 
Virginia Times on slave export in 
1836, i., 3 

W 

Wade, Senator Benjamin F., opposes 
compromise in i860, i., 313; his place 
in history, ii., 381 
Wagon," "The Old Union, ii., 113 
Walker, Robert J., appointed Governor 
of Kansas, i., 249 ; his inaugural ad- 
dress, 250 ; his fearless discharge of 
duty, 251 ^ 



Walker, William, filibustering expedi- 
tion to Nicaragua, i., 260; thwarted 
by Commodore Paulding, 261 

War of the Rebellion, outbreak of, ii., i 

Warmoth, Henry C, Governor of Lou- 
isiana, ii., 425 

Warner, Willard, supports Fifteenth 
Amendment, ii., 376 

Washington, Booker T., on the progress 
of the negro, ii., 435 

Washington, City of, perilous condition 
of, ii., 23 ; measures for defence, 23 ; 
cut off from loyal North, 24 ; relieved 
by General Butler, 24 

Webster, Daniel, debate on slavery 
with Hayne, i., 33; in the Q-eole case, 
62; on the Free-Soil candidacy of Van 
Buren, loi; his 7th of March speech, 
123 ; alienates Massachusetts, 124 ; 
believes Missouri Compromise a suth- 
cient guarantee, 127 ; denounces res- 
cue of fugitive slave Shadrack, 147 

Weed, Thurlow, on disunion sentiment 
in South in 1849, i., 122 ; on Marcy's 
candidacy, 157 

Welles, Gideon, Secretary of the Navy, 
ii., 7 

West Indies, British industrial legisla- 
tion for 1846, i., 140 

West Virginia, admitted to the Union, 
ii., 123; opposition in Senate, 124 

Westf?tinste7' Review on industrial con- 
dition in West Indies in 1849, i., 
141 

Whig, leaders' attitude to War with 
Mexico, i., 87 ; mass-meeting at Leb- 
anon, Ohio, to denounce Mexican 
War, 88 ; National Convention of 
1849, 96 ; dissensions in 1850, 145 ; 
party defeated by bad faith in 1S52, 
160 ; of 1856, 230 

White, John, of Kentucky, Speaker in 
1841, i., 64 

White, legal meaning of in Ohio, i., 13 

Whittier, John G., contributes poem to 
the campaign of 1S56, i., 233 ; on rati- 
fication of Fifteenth Amendment, ii., 
407 

"Wide- Awakes," Republican organiza- 
tion, i., 29^ 

Wigfall, Senator, proclaims Cotton to 
be King, i., 308 

Wilde Bill in Congress in 1828 for trans- 
portation of Africans, i., 28 

Wilkes, Captain, seizes the Trent, ii., 54 

Willey, Waitman T., favors universal 
amnesty, ii. , 376 



456 



Index 



Williams, Robert, manumission of 
slaves, i., 36 

Williams, R. G., requisition of Alabama 
for, on New York refused, i., 44 

Wilmot Proviso, its origin, i., 83 ; Presi- 
dent Polk on, 83 ; John C. Calhoun's 
opinion of, 84 ; James Buchanan on, 
85 ; General Cass on, 85 ; Charleston 
Mercury on, 85 ; Georgia law con- 
cerning, 115 

Wilson, James F., of Iowa, introduces 
amendment to bill for government of 
South, ii., 313 

Wilson, Senator Henry, of Massachu- 
setts, defends President, ii., 121; ad- 
vocates Thirteenth Amendment, 154 ; 
on Committee on Southern Outrages, 
421 

Winthrop, Robert C. , election as Speaker 
of Thirtieth Congress, i., 95; counsels 
moderation for victors, ii., 227 



Wood, Fernando, opposes Thirteenth 
Amendment, ii., 155 

Woodson, Secretary of Kansas, as act- 
ing Governor, signs laws passed by 
fraudulent Legislature, i., 190; dis- 
missed, 249 

Woolman, John, a pioneer opponent of 
slavery, i., 6 

Wright, John C. , on the Wilde Bill in 
Congress, i., 28 

Wright, Joseph A., denounces partisan- 
ship, ii., 93 



Yancey, of Alabama, offers Calhoun 
doctrine of slavery in Baltimore Con- 
vention, i., 86; favors peaceable se- 
cession, 301 

Young, Brigham, defies national gov- 
ernment, i., 260 




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